Life Deals Bad Hands
by TheOldWorldBlues
Summary: So you ever read a SI fanfic, where the person dies and wakes up on Remnant. But most of the time it's a cringey mess, yeah me too, especially since it seem that I am living In one. Life deals very bad cards. But even with this shitty hand, I'm going all in. (SI/?)
1. Life Deals Bad Hands: Intro

Wassup** everyone, If you are here because of an update, it's not a new chapter, it's me rewriting the first one because I was very unhappy after rereading the chapter, and I really just wanted to fix it now that I got my computer working (was a graphics card issue RIP my GTX950, had to replace it).**

**Anyways here we go, and as a reminder make sure to review any criticism, as I know I am not the best writer.**

**Thanks to Genetools for letting me use one of his Ocs, but I'll keep who it is quiet for now. And thanks to the story My Turn for giving me insperation to write again.**

**Note: I don't own RWBY, that right belongs to Rooster Teeth!**

**"Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well." ~ Jack Landon**

* * *

You know those days where the sun is shining brightly, but for whatever god forsaken reason it's raining? Yeah those are my favorite days. There's just something about enchanting watching the rain fall, while the sun is beating down. Just some how seems to make my day every time, makes the world peaceful, as you realize that weird shit like this happens a lot yet, no one seems to notice. It's just relaxing. I look out my car window at this phenomenon just sitting there for god knows how long, before deciding it would be best to head home as all my college classes have ended.

I look in the rear-view mirror to make sure no one is behind me, don't want to hit anyone and get sued, you know? Seeing as no one was in my way, the parking lot surprisingly empty, I pullout of my parking spot, and drive through the lot, enjoying the moment. I pull up to the stop sign separating my school from the main road, as I turn...on to the quiet road. Huh weird, it's a beautiful day besides the rain why's no one on the road? I continue on my way preparing for the 30 minute drive to my apartment I share with my friend from high school. I go to turn on the radio..only to notice it kept saying no signal...weird, I'll have to look at that later, been awhile since I used the aux cord, might as well use it. Hmm choices choices, ah this one will work.

I begin to roll down the windows, to enjoy the day as the rain has stopped, and the sweet sweet guitar begins, I begin to nod my head along, "Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River~" I sing. What better way to enjoy a country area, than with one of the most classic songs dedicated to country roads. What better way to enjoy a rode than to go 60 mph on a road, while it's 70 degrees. I take a deep breathe and enjoy the absolute beautiful moment.

_RumbleRumbleRumbleRumbleRumble_

That's weird, never heard this car make that noise before, it wasn't making this noise this morning. I begin to look for places to pull off, because I'm not risking my car breaking down, because I was an idiot and thought I could make it home, never noticed that this road was this boring before, that might be because no ones on the road, but still.

_RumbleRumbleRumbleRumbleRumble_

There it is again, what is that, it's driving me fucking insane! Well that ominous driveway looks good enough, I sharply turn into it noticing how long it was, but brushed it off.I turn the car off, and look at the trees surrounding me. Now I grew up visiting my grandmother in the Poconos, so I'm used to forests and woods. But this area just gave me the absolute _creeps. _I make my way to the trunk of my 2000 Audi A4 and open it looking for my flashlight I haven't seen since I got the car in April.

"Alright, now where did I leave you?" I say to myself as I shuffle around in the trunk. "Ah there you are" I pull out the flashlight I was looking for but it wouldn't turn on.

"Annnd the son of a bitch won't turn on, _perfect_. I hit the light a few time across my palm, then looking at the bulb when it wouldn't turn on, and of course it shined in my eyes. After my moment of blindness I walk around my car looking for any abnormal features, when I noticed that the driver side hub cap...was busted? Huh, that wasn't broken this morning, and it was brand new. Damn. Doesn't look like it'll fully hinder my ability to drive home, and I can fix it when I get there. That's when I noticed how dark it got. Now I'm hearing whispering, now there's walking behind me. You know what, I should probably get in the car before my paranoia takes over completely.

I get in the car, putting my keys in the ignition and turning. Just fucking peachy. you know that sound when you start your car, and it tries so, so hard to turn on. But he little engine couldn't. Yeah that's what was happening, now my panic is settling in. Where there always masks in the woods with red eyes, didn't think so. I try turning my car one more time before it FUCKING FINALLY STARTED, and bolted out of this driveway back to the main road and pull out and into the main road, not paying attention to the semi truck speeding at me. The truck slammed into the back of my tiny ass car, making it and me spin into a very deep ditch.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc-" I began to wheeze out, still winded from the initial hit, rolling towards the deep ditch, "-cccccccccccc-" I swear in that moment time slowed down as I crashed into the ditch.

* * *

"-ccckkkkkkkk" I finally finish,... wait this isn't a car, this is a dark room. Heh memes, but seriously where am I? "Hello" I call out

"Welcome, are you enjoying your time here?" a voice called from the darkness, as the lights suddenly turned on, "Now I am aware that you must be in some shock after...recent events-" damn right I am, "-so I'll allow you a few moments to gather your thoughts."

Okay what do I remember, I pulled into a drive way, looked for the issue on my car, got freaked out due to my own paranoia, decided to leave, so I wouldn't have a panic attack. I left to get on the road, rather quickly, didn't look to my left as I pulled out, and got T-boned, or would it be reverse L'd? The hit sent my car rolling towards a rather convenient ditch, that was very deep, and... I died, HOLY SHIT I FUCKING DIED! O-okay deep breathes Colin, deep breathes I-I can't have died right? I mean hopefully that truck had a dash-cam, because that crash was not his fault. "P-please continue, before I go into complete panic"

"Ah, then we are ready then" the voice called from my left, I look and HOLY SHIT THAT'S BUDDHA, is this going to be like My Turn? Is that the Wheel of Reincarnation?this is like my turn isn't it. "I am Buddha, I takes souls such as yourself, and give them a second chance, if the Gods believe you deserve it, And-"

"So where would you go if you didn't deserve a second chance?" I abruptly cut him off, before slapping a hand on my mouth. Wait did he just sweat drop, excuse me what the fuck?

"You go to hell" he leveled me a glare, oof. "Now if you don't interrupt, I'll continue. You have been chosen to be reincarnated and we will use this wheel-" he pointed at the wheel. "- to decide where you will be reincarnated". Holy shit this is like My Turn, wait.. does this mean I can live Colt's dream of being Christina Hendricks bra? Don't worry Colt I will avenge you. "And since you and the previous guy like the same stuff, I don't have to change all that much." I looked at the board to see some shows that I liked, RWBY sticking out...as did Christina Hendricks bra...Oh and Infinite Stratos, that might be interesting (**_wink_**), wait why is the wheel spinning

"Uhh, not that I'm trying to complain, but couldn't you have given me a little more time to register the information you gave me?" the wheel still spinning around and around and, you get the point.

"No." Huh, short, I turn my gaze to the wheel watching the slices of pie go by. I like pie, I should've had some before dying. Ooooh lookie I may get to avenge Colt after all, oh wait nevermind, Ooooh Infinite Stratos that could be really fun...oh no.

"No, not RWBY" I mumble. Hey look just because I love the show, and the fanfictions, doesn't mean I want to live there, there are waaaay to many risks, and I am way to lazy to try and adapt.

"Well then, since the last guy was a farmer, what should we make you hmm?". Please don't make me a first year my life right now is already making me a Gary Stu, "How...about a lumberjack"...what

"What." My voiced copied my thoughts

"Enjoy" he says before a sense of nausea hits me...OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

* * *

A cool breeze tickles my nose waking me up, though my head is still hurting, very alike to a hangover. "Holy shit, Buddha drugged me. The fuck Buddha." I slowly rise up from where I was lying down, and sit up. "Hmm, at least I kept my clothes" I was still wearing my lucky plaid hoody, blue jeans, my timbs, and a brown cap.I look around from where I was sitting, only to see trees, trees and ooh look trees. I stand up and begin rummaging through my pockets.

"Phone gone, keys gone, leather wallet...completely empty, how am I suppose to know where I'm going?" Annnd "Ow, rude" I say into the void of trees as a map and compass hit me in the face. Funny, I open the map and began looking over it. "Oh funny you have jokes." In the area called Emerald Forest, there's this little dot saying 'you are currently here' like those markers in malls.

I sigh as I look and measure the distance from me and the nearest settlement, that was not even named on the map."5 miles, fuck me. Perfect." I sighed as I pullout the compass, "Alright North East for 5 miles, definitely not gonna take me a few days.

I begin to walk North East for a solid HOUR, and it started to get dark. I just can't seem to get a lucky break today. Speak of the devil, I see smoke in the distance, and change my course towards it. There not too far, I can make it if I run. As I get closer, the smell of smoke and meat cooking reaches me, and I notice that the camp is in a small clearing, I enter. "Hello, anyone over here", the camp is empty...I don't like this feeling in my gut.

I hear cocking behind me, oh no..."Don't move" the person behind me said sternly...I recognize that voice...oh shit "Turn around slowly" the voice said again, and I followed, because I don't want to get shot...Holy SHIT I was right, IT'S QROW FUCKING BRANWEN, does this mean I stop him from saving Amber...oh no. "Now your going to tell me why I see you running towards our camp!"

"I-I just need directions, I'm kinda lost, and I'm trying to-to get to the nearest settlement." I respond, pretty quickly. "I just need help". I mean wouldn't you be scared if you saw someone holding a shotgun at you, and you know that they won't miss.

"Likely story, now your going to tell me why you really came running into our camp, before my finger gets sleepy, and you end up a bloo-" he tries to finish, before a feminine voice cuts him off.

"Qrow, put you gun down look at him, does he really look like he came here to kill us?" the voice began to yell as Amber Autumn come out of her hiding spot in the trees...now their whispering to each other "Qrow calm down, he looks my age, and I can't sense any aura on him, I think I'll be fine if I talk to him"

"Umm not to ah, rush you guys or anything, but I just want a place to rest before I head to a settlement." I call out trying to get their attention, "If it's an issue I'll just leave" I say before taking a few steps back "I don't mean any trouble." they both gave curious glazes.

"No, no it's alright, why don't you stay here and we can help you get to the nearest settlement tomorrow" she replied with a smile before sticking her hand out, "But we should introduce each other, Hi my names Amber what's yours?"

I reach out and shake her hand before answering "Coal, my name is Coal Black" I give her a smile, as I pull my hand back. Qrow was already making his way to the camp muttering something about "Dumbass 18 year old"

"Best we head to the camp" Amber said before giving me another smile.

"It would be good yes, that way I won't freeze to death before the grimm, get me" I sarcastically add, getting her to giggle... you know this may not be that hard after all.

* * *

**AN: Oof,So, how's it going, what are you doing all the way down here.**

**Also, my real name is Colin, which I wanted to use, but since the whole color naming thing I just made Coal my name and since Black is the name for orphans I believe it allows Coal to have something to bullshit a back story with should be ****int resting**

**So in this chapter I died, met Buddha, met Qrow and Amber and I'm currently shaking up with them at their camp.**

**Anyways if your down here it meant you read the story, so review what you think I could improve on, and if you enjoyed, follow and favorite, lets me know if I should continue. And remember the only greeting that is acceptable, is Wassup.**


	2. You Feeling Lucky Punk?

**Here we go again.**

**Thanks to Genetools for letting me use one of his Ocs, but I'll keep who it is quiet for now. And thanks to the story My Turn for giving me insperation to write again.**

**Note: I don't own RWBY, that right belongs to Rooster Teeth!**

**"Trust everyone, but always cut the cards." ~ Benny Binion**

* * *

_Sizzle...Sizzle...Pop_

The fire's now on it's last few embers, Qrow and Amber went to bed already, leaving me out here alone. I always liked watching fires burn out, watching the shapes and shades the flame gives off, just relaxes you no matter how stressed your are. Given the current events this is exactly what I needed. How lucky...maybe not lucky just fortunate that I ran into Qrow and Amber.

I didn't talk to much to Qrow, I did have some small talk with Amber but nothing too not worthy. I pull out the map and compass and maybe a pen I 'borrowed' from Qrow. I begin writing Important notes on the back.

'Before main events, Qrow escorting Amber her to beacon, how far back was I placed'

"What are your writing?" A soft voice calls quietly. I look up to see Amber leaving her tent walking to me and sitting down on a log to the right of where I was sitting.

"Nothing too important, just some distances and directions. A land mark or two that I need to remember." I lied while folding up the map and sliding it into my pocket. "Don't wanna get lost you know."

"I get it...you never said why you are in the Emerald forest, and with no means to protect yourself." I at her seeing the level of curiosity in her eyes.

"I-I always lived outside Vale, I've never actually been in the city. I had 2 siblings one older one younger.. loved them both very much." I turn my gaze back into the fire taking a deep breathe. "Me and my family had some...disagreements about my dreams, we argued I said some things I shouldn't have said and they kicked me out."

"Wh-why didn't you grab anything other then the map and the compass?"

"No time I just... felt like I was the issue, which I was, so I grabbed what I could and ran. Disowned my self changed my last name to Black, and then you found me I wasn't in a very good state of mind a-and I panicked."

"What did you say to you parents?"

"... Pardon?"

"What did you say to them that made them kick you out?"

...

"Nothing good, nothing I want to repeat to anyone else." I look back at the fire as silence over takes us. "I'm sorry I shouldn't dump this on you we just met."

"NO!" I jump back from her out burst. "I-I mean I don't mind, better to have it out now then b-boil over on the t-trip," she said nervously.

"Even so I... I'm sorry I really don't want to say more I-I...I'm sorry"

...

"There's something about me that make me special-" I look back at her. "-and a lot of people want me to help them."

"Look you don't ha-"

"No, but I want to." She looked at me with soft eyes, "I-I don't get to converse with people often because of my...semblance. And I never really had friends...we may have just met b-but you one of the closest people I've talked to in recent memory"

...

Well...damn. "Amber I-I get what your feeling, when I was younger I was never popular I kept to myself. While I don't know what it's like being forced to be lonely.. I know what it's like to be alone."

She walks over to me from the log she was sitting.. and she hugged me? "Y-you don't know how happy you just made me" she started crying into my shirt.

"H-hey don't cry, there's no need to cry." I hug her back trying my best to comfort her. "There are better things to cry other, d-don't waste them on things that make you happy...save them for when you need them the most."

...

"D-do you have anything to protect yourself tomorrow?" She wiped away a few tears, still sitting next to me.

"No, I...I used to run a lot I was just planning on bolting and hoping for the best." I respond honestly...yeah I know not the best plan but it's all I got right now.

"Well I guess we can't have you walking alone then." She gives me a smile before getting up and walking back to her tent. "Goodnight Coal, I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight Amber"

...

I heard her tent zip up as I look back into the fire "What the hell did I sign up for..."

* * *

"Kid wake up" I felt someone kick me, "Kid if I'm taking you to that village then you better wake the fuck up."

"Alright, alright I'm getting up." I get up from the awkward angle I was sleeping at and crack my neck hard.

"Did Coal wake up?" Amber says walking up to me and Qrow.

"He's in the process of it."

"What I wouldn't do for a fucking cup of coffee right now, to fucking early for this shit." I mumble mostly to myself as I rub my eyes.

"Ha! You sound like someone I know, he can't go three minutes without coffee!" Qrow laughed before walking away leaving me and Amber alone.

"You alright?" I get up and roll my shoulder and walk up to Amber and nod.

"I'm good...I lied coffee withdraw is not fun, like at all." I manage to moan out, Amber laughing at my misery. "Yeah laugh it up, I'll get you back someday, you won't see it coming but I'll get you"

"I-I'm sorry you just look so much like our _friend_ Ozpin when Glynda won't give him coffee." Great now she's in full laughter mode, sound the alarm misery is funny now. I mean I guess it's kind of funny.

We continue walking over to where Qrow is joking along the way. Honestly even though my coffee induced migraine is killing me being around Qrow and Amber joking around helped alleviate it a bit and Qrow even starting out a dick and fucking kicking me to wake me up, is a very chill dude. Making jokes on my expense of course, but so was Amber and she's nice.

...

"Look all I'm saying is that when you suffer from withdraw, I will laugh my ass off while you suffer." I exclaim loudly

"I well...you're not even going through withdraw on a real drug!" C'mon Qrow that's a shitty comeback I know you can do better.

"Yeah, because I don't want to fucking get addicted to hard drugs. What time is it...7 in the morning and how many times did you drink from that flask?"

"He-hey that's completely different."

I roll my eyes as we get to the gates of the village, a sign that was hanging up displayed the name of this place...you go to be shitting me the name of this village is literally 'The Village'. How uncreative do you have to be to name a place the village like what the fuck? This is so obscenely stupid...that it's perfect, the exact thing I would name it. I wouldn't mind living here at all.

"So kid you got a career path you want to take, because frontier towns like this need literally everything" I turn to Qrow giving him a nod. Qrow gets a point in my book being concerned about my future and all.

"Yeah I do...I just want to let you guys know how much this actually meant to me. I-I'm sorry if I ruined anything that you had planned, but I'm thankful either way." Amber actually looked very solemn and Qrow was...impassive.

"No, kid I'm going to be honest I wanted to leave you...but I'm glad I didn't" and you lost the point. I look at Amber and she wouldn't meet my gaze...that hurts even though I know she's upset, though I guess that heart to heart we had last night meant a lot...now I feel like a dick.

"Well...hopefully we can meet again." I sigh before I take a step towards the gate before a weight appeared on my back...

"I hope we meet again too." Amber softly said into my ear. I swear there was like static electricity all over my back...might just be my shirt. "C'mon Qrow we should head to Beacon."

I hear them walking away when I look behind me and I see Amber looking back at me and give me a smile, one I returned. She turned around and I swear I heard Qrow say something along the lines of 'you could do better', fuck you too Qrow. I turn back towards The Village and sigh as I walk through the gates...

* * *

Honestly I should have expected this sort of reception everyone was giving me these weird looks, these like I'm in a new high school again...it makes me feel extremely awkward. But I just keep walking paying attention to the shops I pass, 'Onyx Joe's Bar' , 'Billy Willy's Smithy', and finally 'Opal Carpentering' there's another sign right next to that one 'Lumberjack needed.' Perfect. I walk up and open the door up and walk in.

"Hello, anyone here?" I call out.

"Yes, one second." I hear some shuffling before a door to my right opens up. "Hello hi, how can I help you?".

"I'm here for the Lumberjack job." I look at who greeted me, hot damn this guy looks more like a lumberjack than I do.

"Ah yes follow me." I follow him into a living room area, so basically from the front desk there's a door called 'Living' and it led to this living room. Which I guess is his house in the back there are stairs going up and a door called 'Workshop' and a open doorway leading into a neat kitchen. "So the job is very simple, I used to do most of the work by myself, but grimm has been appearing at rapid rates and I need someone to help me get through the day quicker."

"Sounds good, what's the pay like?" Hey don't look at me like that it's very important, even though it's my 'destiny' to be a lumberjack I still need something to live off of.

"20K a year, but I will provide you lodging, and we can both contribute to meals...so basically you will be a roommate. Only I will take car of the rent." Sounds good enough to me.

"I'll would have taken the job for less, as long as you give me enough where I can do some stuff on my free time, I will live my life fully." he nodded before taking a breathe.

"You want coffee as we finalize the deal?"

"Yes...yes I would."

...

He came back with two cups of coffee. "I ran out of creamer and sugar this morning, hope black is alright."

"Yes that's okay thank you." Hell yeah it's acceptable to drink black coffee exactly how god, or err Buddha intended? I take a sip enjoying the caffeine as it is cooling my withdraw down.

"So let's begin with names. My name is Adam Opal."

"Coal. Coal Black"

He looks at me with a smile on his face and sticks out his hand. "Well Coal I look forward to working with you here at Opal Carpentering."

"Me too Adam, me too." I grab his hand and shake it and raise my cup of coffee for a toast. "To our future success"

"Too our future success" He raises his glass and toasts mine.

* * *

I'm currently in the bathroom of the room that Adam is letting me stay in, examining my face looking for if I've changed at all. Good news no, nothing changed my face looks the same though my eyes which were hazel before, now seem a little greener. I move my hand to scratch the 5'oclock shadow that has started growing on my face debating whether I should shave or not. Hmm...you know what I'm a mother fucking lumberjack, we don't fucking shave. ALL WILL BOW DOWN TO MY MAGNIFICENT BEARD! Anyways I should probably head out and introduce myself to the people of The Village.

I exit the bathroom and leave my room. I see Adam in the kitchen about to prepare dinner for himself, "Hey Adam I'm heading out will probably buy dinner while I'm out."

"Alright just remember your starting work tomorrow so be back at a reasonable hour."

"Yess daaaaaad," I call back in a joking manor before leaving the house and stepping into the cool fall air. I began walking to the bar because, at this time of night everyone one's at the bar. Ahh here we are Onyx Joe's Bar, probably the only place to buy alcohol in the town...anyways I enter into the bar.

_RING...RING_

Huh they got a bell neat. I look over examine the layout of the bar...let's see the bar is to my left, pool tables to my right and poker tables in the back where you know they are there but completely hidden at the same time. I walk towards the bar where a burley tough looking dude who looks like a bouncer more than a bartender, I sit down somewhere in the middle of the bar.

"How can I help you?" The man asks looking at me curiously.

"Ahhh, scotch on the rocks and a cigar please." He nods before preparing my drink, I begin to grab some lien from my pocket, the money that Adam gave me as a sign on bonus, at what I feel I would be paying...maybe 30ish lien, sounds about right. "I'm guessing you're Joe?"

He nods coming back to me with my drink and cigar "That'll be 30 lien." See I swear I'm a god at guessing prices he hands me my drink as I slide him the money. I take a sip enjoying the quality liquor, and grab a match from the container, which I believe was there for people smoking a cigar.

_RING...RING_

"Do you know how hard it is to find a bar this part of Vale?" Oh no not this I'm just done with this bullshit. I can handle meeting Qrow and Amber...mostly because of Amber. But this guy? No. Nuh uh. No way.

"I'll have whatever this guy is having." I look over to see Roman Torchwick sitting down in a chair next to me. Time for me too leave I am not dealing with this bullshit today.

"Hey Joe, I'm going to finish up for the night" I finish my bourbon in a few gulps and prepare to leave the bar, he nodded and cleaned the glass.

"Oh come on, don't be like that at the very least finish your cigar with me." I sigh before sitting back down and taking a heavy puff from the cigar. "In case your wondering I'm Roman Torchwick."

"Coal...my name's Coal." Honestly I was getting sick of my old greeting felt...over used. And I didn't want to give this guy my full name, just to be sure.

"You play any poker kid?" Before I could respond he gets Joe who was helping someone else, to come over. "What kind of poker do you guy's play here?"

"Valian Hold'em." Oh so Texas Hold'em my favorite...played that a little too much my first year in college.

"So kid what do you think a little poker, some fun before you leave?"

You know what, even though Roman is looking like a classic pool shark I'll play see what I can do against him. "You know what sure let's do this"

He smiles acting like this is all going to plan...yeah keep smiling. We get to the poker table where two people we already seated. I turn my gaze towards Roman, I guess it's time to pool shark the pool shark.

...

Okay I guess I may have been a bit overconfident coming into this game, my rust at not playing for over a year showing up. To be 100 percent fair I have had really shit hands and Roman somehow knows I never have anything good so when I try bluffing him, he ups the ante every time until I lose or fold. And when I had something good he always was able to out play me. The buy in was 20 lien, big bind was 10 and small was 5 and since I maaayyyy have blown more money than I should of in this game...when I say I only have 240 lien left and since I am the small bind basically 235 lien. Romans the big, meaning that I get to shuffle the cards...**perfect**.

"So Roman you've been having a good game any tips?" I ask mostly to get a reaction and look for tells...He takes a very heavy drawl from his cigar before answering.

"I don't know just been getting lucky cards I guess." Lie, his tell he gave before answering concludes this. Time to strike, and since I get to shuffle and no one has cut the cards after I shuffle, means I can cheat all I want.

Since I forgot to get the other players names we will just call them Guy 1 and Guy 2. Because I dealt means I take care of all the cards except the hole cards. I deal the cards and look at my hand... two aces. After everyone checks to Romans big bind I flip the flop cards a two, another two and an ace.

"You know what let's make this interesting." Roman adds 30 lien to the table, making Guy 1, and Guy 2 to fold immediately. But I am neither and look to accept his challenge.

"You're right Roman this game has been very boring...all in." I move every single lien I own to the middle, and the look on Romans face, oh man it's perfect I wish I had a camera. Roman takes a final puff from his cigar before putting it out.

"You know Coal you are worth every cent...you really are. But right now you should save your pride before I get that too...I'll match you all in." 800 lien on the table time to make some noise.

Since me and Roman already went all in, we basically check the next two rounds. I flip the turn...another two, we 'check' and I flip the river...an ace of spades. I fucking have a four of a kind, you can only beat that with the two flushes.

"Alright Coal, Roman...flip your cards on three." I get ready to reveal my hole cards a smile very present on my face...wait is that person recording?

"3"

"2"

"1"

I flip my cards over as Roman did the same...holy shit he a had a four of a kind in twos, but I knew my aces beat his. "Like I said Coal you should have backed out" He began to try and grab the money before Guy 1 stopped him

"You didn't win man" The look on Romans face when he notices my quad aces was perfect! I grab the money and began to walk away with my spoils

"Sometimes Roman, to beat a conman...you have to become one" I leave the bar in a hurry incase Roman didn't take too kindly to my win. Moment like these make me remember why I loved poker.

Some pool shark he was.. he got too cocky like I was in the beginning. A wise man once said Trust everyone, but always cut the cards. Roman trusted me too much thinking I would lose...he just forgot to cut my cards.

* * *

**Omake(Canon): Oh shit**

Amber P.O.V.

(2 Days Later)

Finally I get a break from all this fall maiden training Ozpin has me doing...I can only do so much before I get tired. I walk into my room and jump into my bed with a dejected sigh. They still won't let me into Vale just yet, I mean what would I do...run to where I last saw Coal?...Maybe I should do that, though probably wouldn't help with Qrow's teasing saying I want some BC...yeah really bad joke. At least they let me have a scroll to look over the internet. I open the DustTube app and begin looking on the trending page for anything interesting.

'Absolute Nobody, Beats Poker Champ At His Own Game' is that Roman Torchwick, the guy who got banned from every bar for cheating in poker, then stole from everyone who banned him? Looks interesting wait is that who I think it is? I'm going to beat his ass,

"CCCCOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"

...

(My P.O.V)

Me and Adam are currently out in the forest cutting down some trees, you know the usual. We are loading a cut tree into Adams truck to carry back easier...because we are not idiots.

...

"Hey Adam why did I get the feeling that next time I see this person they are going to kick my ass?"

"Which girl did you piss off?"

"...What?"

"Was it Sarah the barmaid?"

"What! NO!" ... "I just got a feelin that it was over me smoking that cigar."

"We can talk about your girl problems later, help me out will you?" Adam said as he was currently struggling to get a piece into the truck.

"Oh shit my bad"

* * *

**So what did you think? Better than the last one? I hope so.**

**I used a lot of poker term you may not know, but since I'm lazy I'm not going to explain anything**

**As always like and fav if you enjoyed leave a comment on what I can improve on, and over all enjoy life**

**See you next Chapter.**


	3. Fold, Then Fold Again

**Yall listen to Old Town Road with Billy Ray Cyrus? Shit's tight.**

**Thanks to Genetools for letting me use one of his OCs, and thanks to My Turn for giving me inspiration to write again.**

**TheFrostZone: Thanks! I like his story and want to use some of his ideas, but I'll keep that to a bare minimum. **

**Guest: Axe Murderer?...….what.**

**Artemis-ArcherOfCrimson: Thanks C: pokers fun, really got into it when my 10th grade geometry teacher taught me to count cards.**

**Note: I don't own RWBY, that right belongs to Rooster Teeth!**

**"You will show your poker greatness by the hands you fold, not the hands you play." ~ Dan Reed.**

* * *

"Hey Coal, how've you been man?"

Billy Willy owner of the gun smithy. You know the Catch-A-Ride guy from Borderlands? That really hick dude? Yeah that's Billy. "Nothin' much just wanted to see how my orders are going."

"Ohhh thise orders on second my dude." He disapered into his workshop to most likely grab the items I ordered. Look around the shop, I mean Billy as dumb as he looks and sounds makes some really cool weapons. Like this chainsaw shotgun, pratical? Maybe not, but it sure looks sick.

I pick up a pistol, a mass produced PMM from Atlas military. It's basically a Makrov but instead of 9x15mm it's 12mm. Honestly I would buy this pistol alone just so I can go around yelling Cyka Blyat.

I"Here you go muchacho, this is what I have done right now, your bigger order won't be done for another week." Billy said coming out of his workshop with a case, that he puts down on his counter.

"Thats alright I just needed something to protect myself." I grab the case and open it, inside it lay my weapon...the Ranger Seqoia. You know from Fallout New Vegas. "Perfect a job well done Billy."

"Thank you! What're you going to name 'er"

"Sequoia, it means redwood." I pull the weapon out popping the chamber out and making sure it's empty before pointing it at a wall feeling it's weight. Perfectly balanced, "Does it fire the ammo I asked for?"

"Yeap, as asked. Enough to punch through any grimm, and deal a sizable chunk to any huntsmans aura." I nod as I look down the sights of the weapon making sure it's lined up perfectly. "Oh and before I forget, your holster." He reached under the counter and pulled a holster out.

I grab the holster and attach it to my belt loop on my jeans. "Can I get the ammo?" he pointed at the box.

"There should be enough, that if you shot 100 bullets every day, you would run out in like 3 weeks." I nod as he went to describe the weight of the weapon loaded and unloaded.

"You said that the shotgun was going to take another week?"

"Yeap." I nodded as I loaded then holstered Sequoia. "If you ever need more ammo give me a days notice and should have it done in that time."

I gave a nod, before I grabbed the box and left. "Have a good day Billy." I call as I leave the store.

"You too Coal." He calls back as I close the door behind me. I start to head back to the house to put the gunbox in my room. I'm going to head to the bar today, because Joe wants me too meet someone. So far this day seens like it's going good.

* * *

Todays not going good at all. When I got to the bar Joe called me other to where he was, the pool tables. Now any other time I would have been happy to play some pool, but today...I'm terrified to be where I'm standing. Because right now Qrow is standing next to Joe looking pissed.

"Joe, Qrow" I say trying my hardest no to let my fear into my voice. You see, even though me and Qrow got along on my trip to The Village, I obviously did something to piss him off.

"Oh you too know each other?" Joe asked curiously.

"Yeah, I'm the one who got the kid here. Joe can you give us a few minutes to talk it's been awhile."

"Yeah sure I'll go grab some whiskey and we can play pool." Joe said as he left to the bar.

"Kid you fucked up." I gulped looks like I did do something, "Do you know how hard you've made my life?"

"N-no I don't."

"Amber got so fucking pissed and took it out on me." What? "And you wanna know who pissed her off, well it was you asshole."

"Wait, what? How did I piss her off?"

"She caught saw you smoking a cigar when you were playing poker a few weeks ago"

"How did she see me if she wasn't there?"oh shit that guy was recording probably put it on their version of YouTube.

"She saw it on DustTube." Figures, I mean cigars are not even that bad for you. You mostly keep the smoke in your mouth to taste it.

"And since you were the nearest to her she took it out on you?"

"YES!"

"I think you need some whisky." I'm trying my best not to burst out laughing right now.

"Whisky is served boys!" Joe said as he came back with a bottle and a few glasses.

I give Qrow a look of pity and grab a glass from Joe that got filled. " you guys up for some pool?"

"Sure." Qrow grabbed a glass and took a gulp...how can you do that? I mean I'm Irish and I have trouble doing that.

"Perfect, standard 8-ball?" Joe asks as he grabs a cue from the wall nearby

"Yep."

"Sounds good."

...

After We grabbed our cues, and set the balls up we needed to decide who would play first, and what better way than rock paper sizers, which I won by the way.

After Qrow and Joe's match it was decided it would be me and Qrow to play our first match. Me and Qrow decide for me to break the balls.

Nothing came out of it, like usual though I did give Qrow a lot of easy shots.

"Y'know kid you're not that bad"

"Thanks...I guess" He made a stripe in meaning he takes another shot. "Hey Qrow would you mind unlocking my aura?"

He stopped before he shot giving me a weird stare. "Kid you mean to tell me that you went into a Grimm infested forest without aura?"

"I wasn't really in the best state of mind when I decided to leave my home."

"I'm not sure wether to call you brave, or the dumbest person alive." He missed his shot.

"I assure you it's the second one." I take a shot at the solid near the top right socket and...missing?

"Ha! Nice shot!" Qrow said mockingly.

"Yeah fuck you too."

He takes a shot making two in one go. "But if you're wondering I will, mostly because if Amber was mad that you were smoking I don't want to se her when you die."

Nice...you really got your priorities straight Qrow. He missed the second shot allowing me to get another turn...and I missed again.

"Fuck!" What is with me today? I'm usually not this bad at pool.

"Heh let a master show you how it's done" He took another shot...three in one what is this bullshit it's almost like he is extremely lucky, and...I'm...unlucky...I forgot his semblance.

"Now I just need that 8 ball, back right pocket"

He made it if your wondering, I took a big sip of the whiskey and sat down after my grueling lose.

"Oh Coal, I would've though you were good at pool." Joe said as he came back from serving guests.

"I usually am, just-" I turn to Qrow, "-unlucky today for whatever reason."

"Why are you looking at me it's not my fault!"

"Well you've been lucky, I've been unlucky...almost like it's your semblance." I gave him an accusing glare.

"How'd for figure that?"

"Qrow I play poker, you can't lie to me often."

He sighed, "You caught me, my semblance makes other people unlucky, happy asshole?"

"Yes very." We all sit in silence for a good bit drinking whiskey and making small talk, you know the usual things.

"Hey Qrow mind unlocking my aura now? Just to get it out of the way?"

He sighed again before walking up to me. "Close your eyes." I did as followed and he started talking again.

_For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of greed and deceit to rise above all. Infinite in wisdom and unbound by death, I release your soul, through the hand dealt by life, play thee._

You know how everyone talk about how after then unlock their aura they feel invincible? Their lying you don't feel invincible you feel GODLIKE.

"I can't even begin to describe how good I feel right now, I feel like I can conquer the world if I tried." I look at Qrow in a state of nirvana.

"Yeah just give it 5 minutes and you'll begin feeling like shit again."

"Let me enjoy this then." Like for real, I've smoke weed but never felt this good, even when I was baked out of my mind.

"Thank you Qrow, hopefully my semblance will be useful." Honestly, for real though it would suck if my semblance is annoying like Qrow's. Because let's be honest Qrow struck out on semblance's.

I look outside and realize how late it is. "Sorry guys but I got to go, I got work tomorrow, can't get too drunk"

"See you man"

"Bye kid"

"Hey Qrow, tell Amber I said hi alright?" I turn back calling out into the bar.

"You got it kid." I heard Qrow call back.

* * *

_(TheNextDay)_

_ThunkThunkThunk_

Me and Adam are currently out chopping wood right now, because it's my job and all.

We are about done, and the days light is on it's last breathe. Mostly when me and Adam head out on these trips we joke around, helps keep the negativity away and lightens the mood you know?

But today it felt like no matter what we said to each other, this dreadful taste was always present.

"Adam we should head back, I've got a really bad feeling about this." I slowly unholster Sequoia and cock the hammer back.

"Alright, you sure?"

"Yeah just...a horrible taste in the air right now." We heard some howling in the distance. "Well...shit."

"Coal, we need to get to the car."

"Yeah no shit."

We start running to the car, and I have Sequoia fully out when a Beowulf jumps in front of us

_Bang_

One down. "Adam start the car, I'll protect us while you start the car!" I yell looking around for more Beowulf's.

_Bang__Bang_

Two down...holy shit that's a lot of Grimm, I hear the truck start behind me, and I hop in the back with the wood

_SlashBang_

F-fuck one of them got a claw on me, why didn't my aura stop it? Okay deep breathes

_Bang__BangClick_

The car begins moving rather quickly thankfully. "RELOADING!" I tell hoping Adam he would hear me

_Slash_

God damnit another one got me, the trucks not moving fast enough to escape them.

_Bang__Bang__Bang_

Fuck three for one target, not good enough, at least we're picking up speed. My vision is getting bleary...the shots are becoming harder to hit

_Bang__Bang_

Their slowing down thank Christ. I look at my left shoulder, where I got clawed twice...hmm not as bad as I though it was. Still very deep, this is not good.

You know a nap seems very nice about now.

...

Hmm I know that smell it's uh...hmm. OH! It's bleach, wait why would I smell bleach? Am I in a hospital? What happened cmon Coal remember...oh that's what happened. I open my eyes and let my eyes adjust to the sudden light to see a hospital room.

"Hello, Doc? Adam? Anyone there?" If I'm at a hospital, that probably means I'm at docs. Doc is our resident...uh well doctor. The Village has a small hospital it only has like two rooms.

The door opened showing Doc with a clipboard and a scroll in his other hand. "Ah Coal you're up, how are you feeling?"

"Pretty mediocre if I'm to be honest."

"Perfect, so do you remember what put you in here?"

"Grimm, me and Adam were out in the forest and we ran into Grimm, one or two got a hit on me I can't remember to much after that."

"Well lets start from the moment you got hit, you have aura yet it went through." Hey I remember that now, that's bullshit! It's supposed to help me not become a security blanket!

"I don't know why it didn't protect me...honestly." He nods as he writes that down

"When did you get your aura unlocked?"

"Yesterday." He wrote that down too.

"There's the issue. You see aura, it like a muscle you have to train it, for it to work properly."

"Huh didn't know that."

"Most people don't, unless you went to a combat school you couldn't have known." He writes something else down on his paper. "You find your semblance yet?"

"No, I thought those took forever for you to discover?"

"Something we tell kids so the actually work when we give them aura." That's actually hilarious.

"How long does it really take?"

"Depends on the person, some take one day, most take a year. It's somewhere in that range."

"Huh the more you know." I shift in the bed so I'm sitting up cracking my neck. "How long do I have, till I get released?"

"Oh, you can go now if you wanted I just have to do a check up before you go"

"Lets get it out of the way then." Honestly I hate check ups, it's just awkward most of the time.

"Alright stand up." I follow his order. "Alright you're good to go."

"What?"

"You're good to go." Can all check ups be like this. It's great all you need to do is stand? Perfect no more ball touching.

I leave the room I was in, going into the receptionist area. Adam is in a chair sleeping. I walk over to him shaking him a bit.

"Adam let's go." I kept shaking him...holy shit he's more knocked out than I was.

"Hmm wha?" I kept shaking. "Alright, alright I'm awake stop shaking me"

"Cmon sleeping beauty, lets head to the house." I begin to walk away seeing him follow behind me.

"When'd you get up?" Adam asked, his voice still slurred from sleep. "They said you wouldn't be awake for another day."

"...How long was I out?"

"You didn't ask Doc?"

"No I wanted to leave, I don't like hospitals never been to one for a good reason." We walk out of the hospital. " and the last time I was in one it was for a dislocated ankle, which hurts a lot to be set again."

"Hmm, well you were out for little over a day." Huh shorter than I thought I was out. "When did you get your aura unlocked"

"I would say a day ago, but with new knowledge, two days." He nods as we continue walking.

"We're going to take a break tomorrow, you need it, and I need to destress." Hey I'll take it. I am a master a being lazy

I nod as we get to the house, Adam unlocks the door as he is the only one with a key right now. We walk in and I start heading towards the stairs to go to my room.

"Hey Adam I'm going to lay down let my body's healing finish its course and then tomorrow we can head to the bar and play some pool, or something like that"

"Alright, see you tomorrow then." I nod as I head into my room and plop down onto my bed

"Seriously...what a day man...what a day." I close my eyes and fall asleep never though it's half past noon.

* * *

(Qrow P.O.V)

You know Ozzy was right. This kid does know more than he lets on. Ozpin got suspicious when we ran into him...as was I. But then the kid goes on and learns my semblance. Something's up with him and it doesn't sit right with me.

Not to mention his story of fighting with his family is fake. Or more like a white lie. Because no where in any medical records of any frontier towns. Mentions the family black, or the name Coal.

I watch as he fires and kills a few Beowulf's then him and his buddy take off in a truck. Coal Black, as suspicious as you are Ozpin wants you as a piece. Sorry kid this was necessary, we need to test you.

I pull my scroll up and sent a message to Ozpin.

_'The Knight is in play'_

Coal Black you just entered a game you never wanted to play.

* * *

**So how was this chapter?**

**Any better, any worse? Just make sure to follow and favorite if you enjoyed and review what you think I can change!**

**Don't be afraid to get abrasive I'm a big boy I can take it.**

**See you next chapter!**


	4. A Fistful Of Lien

**Hey, long time no see. Welcome to another chapter! **

**I'm currently listening to a shit ton of Johnny Cash and playing TF2 right now if explains how I'm doing **

**Raidentensho: I'm a be honest here cheif, had no idea what you were talking about so I looked it up. Yeah though about an axe but decided against it.**

**Artemis-ArcherOfCrimson: Thank you! Honestly it's how most of my conversations with people I know go.**

**Guest1&2: Since I'm going to assume your the same person, what are you on? And where can I get** **some?**

**"Whoever coined the phrase 'a man's got to play the hand that was dealt him' was most certainly one piss-poor bluffer"~ Jeannette Walls**

* * *

(3 Months Later)

I'm currently sitting at Joe's bar watching the Tv he has hanging above the liquor. So I found out where in the timeline I was placed...if a 13 year old Pyrrha has anything to say about. She's currently fighting in the first of her four wins, and as the pure, honest soul I am...I bet all my money on her to win. Literally all the lien I could get I through on her.

I sip the Parnold Almer I got from Joe, because I'm not looking to get drunk right now. Of course it's on my tab as I can't pay right now. It's also pretty funny how many items were ripped straight from our world, Coka-Cala, Bepsi, Anta, you get the point. Everyone in the town got together to get on this game.

Im the only person on Remnant who put all their money on Pyrrha, the person she's fighting is some hot shot guy who I didn't care to remember. I see Joe walking over with the jug of beer he just served someone.

"You know Coal I still don't know why you bet all money on that Pyrrha chick." He filled my glass and looked at the tv seeing her fight, "She's good and all but the other guy is better."

"Oh really?" I raise an eyebrow. "I think so, her semblance is a game changer."

"How do you know her semblance?"

"Oh-uhhh-" shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit, "-I'm good at poker?"

"You know, one day you're going to have to answer a question where that won't answer it."

"I'll burn that bridge when I get to it." Or shoot them...modern problems require modern solutions.

"Good luck to you then, refill?"

"Yes please...more debt is great thank you." He gave me a deadpan look, "No seriously more please." I push my glass towards him.

He started to fill it up, "How's that shotgun you got from Billy treating you?"

"Frontier Justice?, absolutely perfect!" The other order that wasn't finished last time I went was my shotgun Frontier Justice...and if you're wondering where I got the idea for it, it would be TF2.

"Yeah the gun looked really nice, was it only a shotgun, or does it transform into something?"

"Nah just a shotgun, no need for that complicated shit." It's true though, the more complicated you make your weapon. The more maintenance you have to do on it so it works properly.

He nods after filling my glass leaving to serve some other people. Mhmmmm ice tea and lemonade a match made in heaven. I wonder how Amber is doing-

...

"QROW IM GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU ABSOLUTE ASSHOLE!"

"HOW WOULD I KNOW YPU WANTED TO SEE COAL- SHIT IM SORRY, IM SORRY STOP ROASTING ME ALIVE!"

...

-It's been a while since I last saw her. Oh well, not like she's killing Qrow by using her maiden powers right? Yeah she's too nice for that. She would't hurt a fly...maybe...

...

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH! THINK YOU OVERCOOKED MY ARM AMBER AHHHHHH!"

"STOP YELLING QROW AND DIE QUIETER!"

"AHHHHHHHH!"

...

Oh would you look at that Pyrrha is going to the finals, I mean it's not like I knew it would happen or anything...It's not cheating I swear!

I take another sip before heading to the pool table to play by myself. I set everything up and I take the break shot and begin nocking the balls into the hole one by one. I'm humming Folsom Prison Blues to myself. Before I shoot the black ball into the back right pocket.

Playing by yourself is boring if you didn't know, it really makes you feel alone. I set the balls up again until I hear someone walk up to me. I swear if it's another person from the main cast I will go on a murdering spree.

"Want a player 2?" A sigh escapes me as I turn and see a women with red hair and green eyes.

"Sure better than playing by myself at any rate." She grabs a cue and begins to chalk it up. She walks back over to me where the white ball is and reaches her hand out.

"Athena Nikos." Oh Shit...well I mean she's not part of the main cast...I guess.

I reach out and grab her hand, "Coal Black." She takes a shot breaking the balls, but not making any into a hole.

"So your the one who put 20,000 lien onto my little sister." She walks a little closer in her...form fitting clothes. Jeans and a white t-shirt never seemed like a better fit.

"I mean 15-1 odds seemed like a good idea, though the debt I'm in right now would say otherwise."

"How did you get in debt?"

"I'm the dumbass who put all his money on your little sister, and forgot I needed money to pay for anything else." Now she's laughing.

I take a shot getting the solid seven in. "If I may ask, why did you put yourself into this position by betting on my sister?"

"I'm a poker player. Call intuition I guess?" Ha! More like knowledge of the future.

"Well regardless, my family and my sister would like to invite you to the championship game, if you would care to join?"

"Know this is confusing. Why invite me?" I'm being serious, I did the betting thing purely for selfish reasons.

"Because you gave my sister more of a drive to win, and seeing you there cheering her on would make her day." Alright sounds reasonable I guess.

"When's the game?"

"This coming Sunday, two days from now."

"I will need to clear it with my boss, but I would love to go. Though he may make me act as a 'sponsor' " I say sponsor in air quotes showing her I was joking around.

She started laughing harder than earlier, our game of pool completely out of mind. "Sounds like you and your boss are close."

"S'what happened when you leave to men with axes in the woods."

"Sounds fun."

"It is until Grimm show up, then it's like an action movie."

"You've fought Grimm? Are you an ex huntsman?" Ex huntsman who do you think I am? I was an ex psychology, and engineering student.

"Nah, just a guy with a a few guns in the wrong place at the wrong time." Maybe not the wrong place but definitely the wrong time. "Though a few did manage to get me, me and Adam were alright."

"Adam?"

"My boss."

She finally took a shot missing the pocket with her stripe, and hitting mine in. "Are you a huntress" I ask as I finally take notice of the sword hanging on her hip.

"Yup just graduated from Haven!"

"Good for you, never been to a combat school what's it like?"

"Grueling, rough and mind breaking." I look at her curiously as if to ask why she stayed. "But they knew what it was like and were very lax on what you could do outside of school hours."

"Sounds...fun?"

"Let's go with that. But I do know that Beacon Academy students have more fun, due to the curriculum there." I nod as I hit another ball in, then miss the next shot.

I sigh as I shake my head. "Yeah combat training would have helped three months ago."

"What happens three months ago?"

"It was when me and Adam were attacked." I roll my left shoulder thinking about the aching pain I had for 3 weeks after.

I looked at her as she looked down at her watch and sighed. "Well Coal it was nice meeting you, here's my number for you to call if you so happen to get your boss to let you come to the tournament."

I nod and grab the paper as hastily wrote on and put it in my pocket. "Likewise, take care Athena."

"You too Coal." She calls back as she leaves the bar. I sigh and rack the cues and head back to the bar.

"Hey Coal how come all the hot chicks like you?"

"Yeah man what kind of cologne you wearing to attract them?"

"HaHa very funny Flynt, fuck you too Darian." I slide back into my seat my glass still full from when I left it.

"Yeah Coal how do you manage to get them to come near you?" Joe asks as he walks over to me.

"What do you guys mean all the hot chicks, Athena was the only one who approached me."

"What about the on girl who helped Qrow get you to our town, what was here name, Amber?" How, what?

"How do you know her?"

"Qrow told me, and said something along the lines of 'way out of his league'" Fuck you too Qrow.

I get up and begin to leave "Joe just put this shit on my tab, I'm going to fucking bed."

"It's 12:30"

"I know."

* * *

(2 days later)

Its too early. I have no more coffee. And I have no way of contacting Athena. You ever get a girls number, but wash your pants forgetting it? Then you feel like a dick because you can't call her? Yeah that's what I'm going through right now.

Thankfully Adam has a landline that's hooked up to our mini CCT tower that can barely get to vale, so I can call someone in Mistrial. In my opinion it's too complicated and needs a huge upgrade.

I punch in the number that was giving and hit call, dreaming about coffee while I wait.

"_Hello_?"

Sounds like Athena, but just to be sure, "Hi this is Coal Black, I'm calling for a Athena Nikos, she there?"

"_I'm right here._" I hear her say through laughter. "_Your boss letting you join us for the finals_?"

"Yeap, though I gotta ask how formal are we dressing for this?"

"_Pretty formal, think of casual Friday at an office job_."

"Alright sounds good. But here's the important part. How am I going to get there?"

"_We have a bullhead going to your village to pick you up I'll be on it to pick you up. Give us an hour and we'll be there_."

"Alright see you in an hour."

_Click_

Well, time to get dressed I guess...what to wear what to wear. I have an idea and it's perfect!

...

I see the bullhead land in an open field, and the bay door opens revealing Athena very well dressed. Casual Friday my ass, good thing I dressed well. I'm currently wearing a grey plaid suit, with a red and black vest and a black button up underneath the vest. I'm wearing a cowboy hat, a gift from Adam when I got injured, it looks a lot like Arthur Morgan's hat.

"Well don't you look nice." I say as I walk up to her. She's currently wearing a very nice red dress, that is more form fitting than what she wore when I saw her Friday. Is an hourglass shape normal? Because the little guy seems to like it.

"As do you, I didn't think you had anything nice to wear considering."

"Considering I live out on the frontier?"

"Yes." Well at least she's honest.

"I though it was casual Friday?" Like seriously if this is casual then I don't want to see someone dressing up.

"There's been a...slight change in plans. My parents want to meet you over lunch at a very nice place, too get to know the only guy who bet on my sister." Great meeting the parents, every boys worst nightmare. And I'm not even dating Athena!

"That's alright, I haven't eaten yet either so lunch sounds good" I nod along, feeling Sequoia that's hidden in my vest. And hidden very well it is, she hasn't noticed it, and hopefully no one will.

"Good good, we're eating at a fancy diner in Vale, its called 'Johns' I believe." Ha! Service With A Smile reference.

"Honestly if they serve coffee, I think I will be good. Haven't had my caffeine fix yet."

She nods as she sits down in a seat. I sit across from her. Sadly that's the most of that conversation as we sit in silence on the way there.

...

I'm going to be honest with you chiefs. This...this is it. Vale is actually a very good looking city. The city life is like New York City, yet no one is a dick to you.

Me and Athena walk up to the restaurant called John's. I walk up to the door to open it but she put a hand in front of me to get me to stop.

"So I have to be some what honest. My parents think you're my date to the finals."

Excuse me what? "Why do you need a date for a game?"

"Have you ever been apart of the family of a Mistrial Tournament finalist? It's conserved to be an honor to even participate." I nod along listening, but not really. "And as family of a finalist we're supposed to look nice to represent the finalist."

"And where do I fit in all this?" I'm genuinely curious. And what did she mean by 'date'?

"Since you were the only one who bet on my sister, my family though you should be my date to the game."

"Man that hit like a semi truck." And I know what that feels like...not good. At all, actually the worst feeling I've ever felt.

"I'm sorry...I'm just-"

"No I got you just one second." Alright deep breathe in. Deep breathe out. I run my hand through my hair under my hat. "Alright I'm good let's head inside shall we?"

"You're not mad?"

"Nah, not worth getting mad over something that simple. Would rather save it for when I actually need it." That's true...no need to get mad if it's not that bad. I mean I got a date with a supermodel is how I'm taking it.

"Alright-okay...that's good, that's good." Is she panicking?

"You good?"

"No-yes, yes I am thank you we should head inside." I opened the door for her and she walked in. She checked in with the waiter dude while I looked around the diner.

She tapped my shoulder and I followed her as we went over to where I assume her parents were. We sat down in front of them side by side.

"Hello my name is Jupiter Nikos, and this is my wife Minerva Nikos." The big man sitting in front of me said. Now the dude doesn't look anything like Athena or Pyrrha, guess they took after the Mom.

"Hi, my name's Coal you know my last name. It's very nice to meet you, Athena been telling me all about you on the way here."?

"Has she know? What has she been saying about us?"

"That you're hard to impress, and she wants to make you proud." Athena gave me a look of astonish.

"Has she know. Now tell me how close are you to my daughter where she would tell that much?"

"Alright I kinda lied she didn't tell me anything." They looked at me weirdly. "But that's what I'm good at. I learn through body language and they way people speak. It's also how I found out your daughters semblance."

"Now how did you-"

"I mean someone missing every crucial swing means either their really bad." I give them a look as it begins to set in. "Or the other person is manipulating them somehow."

He got really close and whispered "You can't tell anyone about her semblance it's crucial no one knows!"

"Why do you think I bet on her." He nods and leans back.

"I like you. I like you a lot, you're not afraid to speak your mind even when you know you shouldn't." He nods to Athena and his wife. "I approve."

What? His wife started laughing, while Athena flushed red. I'm confused, what did I miss.

"Am I missing something?"

"NO!" Everyone one in the restaurant turned towards her outburst. "No you missed nothing important"

Alright I'll just take her word, oh look the waiters finally here. "Ladies gentlemen how may I help today?" He asked politely.

"Do you have coffee? Espresso?" He nods. "Can I get a double shot of espresso then."

"How about everyone else" he asked as I stopped paying attention coffee on my mind.

...

So I'm currently sitting in the booth made for the families of the finalists, it gives the people in it a perfect view of the field. Pyrrha won which is good means that, the 20,000 dollars I put in? Yeah make it 300,000 now.

I swear I can now grab fistfuls of lien it's great! Everyone is currently celebrating Athena and Pyrrha are currently talking when I walk up to them

"Ladies." I look at Pyrrha as a green out line surrounds her smile...weird.

"Hello mister..." She drawled obviously looking for my name but there was a sense of disdain in her voice that she's hiding behind her smile

I got to answer her but I was interrupted by Athena "That's Coal the guy I was talking about."

"Oh! It so nice to meet you. Athena said so much about you!" Her mood switched real quick...weird.

"As you. I have to congratulate you on your win looked like a hard fought battle." She nodded, I turned towards Athena. "I'm sorry to ask but I need to head back to my town. Got work tomorrow and such." She nodded.

"Yeah, t-that sounds like a good idea." She grabbed my hand and began pulling me towards the bullhead she has set fro my village. Of course she said goodbye to everyone. She stopped me before I could go on.

"I just want to say thank you for everything."

"I didn't do anything important."

"No but you gave my sister something to drive for, and gave me a day that I would Remember for awhile."

"All I did was talk back to your father, that's nothing too much." I'm still confused about what happened at the diner.

"You did a lot for me regardless and I want to thank you." She walked close and gave me a kiss on the lips.

"Wha-wha-wha." has stopped working commence reboot?

...

I snapped back into reality when the bullhead landed and I walked out and it flew away leaving me alone outside the gates.

What the actual fuck just happened...

* * *

**Now if you can't tell, in real life I'm shit when it come to picking up people's feelings. Like I can understand everything I need, but the moment I think someone might like me, I completely forget everything.**

**Make sure to review what I should change and follow and favorite. Makes me feel warm inside.**

**See you next chapter!**


	5. Man In Black

**Welcome to another chapter!**

**I can't thank you all enough for the support. 20 favs and 30 follows, even though it doesn't sound like much it brings a huge smile to my face knowing I entertain all of you.**

**If you can't tell this chapter it is a reference to Man In Black by Johnny Cash. One of, if not my favorite song!**

**Raidentensho: You know what! Just for you bud, I'll do it! just for you.**

**TheFrostZone: Yeah I realized that when I was writing. I just liked the way the chapter turned out.**

**"If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you." ~ Paul Newman**

* * *

It's early...the sunrise is beautiful. The coffee I made, perfect. That screaming in the background that sound like someone running from someone? Yeah huge mood killer. Who gets killed at a time like this it's literally 6 in the morning. I chug the rest of my coffee down as I walk back inside off the porch.

I'm already dressed in tan shorts and a pink sweatshirt...what it's comfortable as fuck. I grab Sequoia and walk into the woods grumbling along the way. Alright where is the screaming coming from this direction?

"AHHHHHHHH! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

There it is I begin jogging in that direction Sequoia's hammer cocked. I'm not getting hurt again...wait I remember this clearing. Its where I was attacked all those months ago.

"ANYONE OUT THERE! HELP ME!"

Hey I look around seeing...a seer? Oh shit that's not good immediately aim and shoot at the seer grazing it. The person it was chasing ran and hid behind me as I pull the trigger again.

_BANGBANGBANG_

Well, three times is once right? But no matter I killed the seer, one to the head two to the chest. After releasing a sigh of relief I turn around to see who was getting chased.

"Are you Alright?" It was a girl lying and the ground, must have tripped. She looked pretty nerdy wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt that has their version of Star Wars on it. She has raven black hair and orange eyes. Reminds me of cinders in a fire. She has glasses on her face...the face that is currently terrified.

"Ye-no. N-no I'm not...I'm honestly terrified right now." Her voice sounds really familiar...where have I heard it before.

"You safe right now, there's a town a little that away. It's where I live." She still looks shook up. "There's a hospital there where we can get you checked out. And we can give you a warm meal to calm your nerves."

She nodded slowly still reeling over what just happened. "I-I...s-sure"

"Here, up you go." I grab her arm gently and lift her up into her feet. I take a step back and reach my hand out. "My name's Coal."

She tentatively reached out her hand, probably scared of the guy with the gun. "C-Cinder F-Fall." My mind went blank. She's Cinder...but she doesn't look like herself? Is that the right way to say it?

"Hey no need to be scared, by we should start walking to the village, and you can let me know what you were doing out here in the woods." She nodded as she takes a deep breathe and begins to move towards where I was pointing.

"Me, and my family were flying to Vale from Mistrial, until a nevermore flew into the cockpit and made us crash...I was the only one that survived." I nod solemnly. "I heard someone say, it's alright child and when I turned around there was a seer."

So Salem managed to get Cinder on her side by killing her family, and promising power to get revenge. Man that's fucked up! Now I feel bad for a villain...a very cute villain...holy shit I got the hots for Cinder Fucking Fall...

"That...alright!" I look down at a watch I don't own. "Would you look at the time! It's time to change the subject! You like Star Wars?"

"Like Star Wars? I love Star Wars!" She responded. I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing her talk about things besides world domination. Just weird.

Now you don't know this, but Star Wars is like the only thing not made into a rip off brand. It's just Star Wars, and it's perfect! "I know right!? It's every fantasy I've ever had was just better!"

She nods excitedly as we near my house, which I direct her to walk past. "I don't know how they do it but each one captivated me."

"Star Wars was my childhood, me and my parents used to watch them all the time before I left." I finally holster Sequoia, since I forgot to do it before. We finally walk up to Doc's place and I open the door for her.

"Coal, what are you doing here? And this early, did you get yourself hurt again?"

"No it's someone who probably spent the last few hours running from Grimm." We heard some scrambling and a door opened revealing a very rushed appearance.

"Please come, come" He looked over at Cinder. "Person running from Grimm I presume?"

"Y-yes?" She looked as shocked as I was.

He nodded and turned to me after she walked into the examination room."I'll give her a check up but until we know what she wants to do, she'll stay with you and Adam."

I nod before I head out of the clinic and sigh. Guess I'm off to the bar...again. I really need to find more places to hang out.

* * *

(Cinder POV)

The man pulled me into the room and sat me down on one of those table things. He pulled out a clipboard and a scroll. He asked for the normal stuff, like name age, blood type and such

"Cinder Fall, 19 And I'm type AB."

"Good, Good you remember your name. At least you have some files from your last check up in Mistrial." He continued to type things up on his scroll mumbling. Honestly is he a doctor? He looks more like a mad scientist than a doctor.

"Now Cinder were you hit, or injured at all while you were running around in the forest?"

"No, I tripped and pulled something when I got to Coal." He walked over with a stethoscope.

"Is it safe to presume you're hurting in the leg?" I nod before he continued talking. "I'm going to check you heart rate out, then your leg. You probably just strained your calf running for as long as you did."

He put the stethoscope near my heart and began to listen..."So, about Coal?" I could feel my heart racing. "He's a nice guy, pretty good looking too." My heart rate continued to climb before he pulled away.

"Can I ask what Coal had to do with anything?" He walked over to his scroll and clipboard and wrote something down. He ignored me!

"Well your heart is working fine now let's check out your leg now which one hurts, right? Or left?" I pointed to my left. He moved his hands over my calf poking and prodding looking for anything noteworthy. Hi poked near my hamstring and I flinched.

He walked back over to his scroll writing something down again. "Alright you have tentanitus in your hamstring. I recommend you take the next week easy. Ice every night and let someone know if it starts hurting."

"Who would I let know? I have no immediate family anymore."

"You would let Coal know." My face flushed red again at the mention of Coal. "Your going to be staying with him and his boss while you recover, since you don't have anywhere to go"

I nod, but before I could get a word out he began to push me out the door and into the waiting room. "Head to the bar called 'Joe's' and tell the bartender to give you a meal on Doc's tab."

The door slammed shut behind him leaving me to think about what happened . Me and Coal get to stay in the same house...which could become the same room...maybe the same bed...

I quickly began to head towards the bar, hoping my flushed face would die down.

* * *

(My POV)

You ever have Irish coffee? If you have no idea what I'm talking about your probably too young. It's when you put whiskey in your coffee. What am I doing drinking before 10 you might ask? I'm drinking because one of the main villains of RWBY is a super sweet, nerdy, shy girl. Lord help me.

I see Joe walking over to me...and honesty I've always wanted to do this to someone. Ahem, "Coal where did you get a hot chick this time?"

"Hey Coal where did you get a-wait what the fuck."

"How did you guess what I was going to say?"

"How did you guess wha-stop fucking doing it! I'm being serious!"

"If you don't stop I'll take away your alcohol privileges."

"If you don't stop-Coal I swear too Oum." Okay time to stop, though it was really fun while it lasted.

"Okay, okay I'll stop I just always wanted to do it to someone." That right! You just got JoJo'd.

"But seriously, where did this one come from?"

"Found her in the wood running from Grimm." If I remember correctly it was a seer, the Grimm Salem uses to talk to people. "I helped her out, then brought her here to get looked at by Doc."

"I swear dude. Something keeps putting you in these situations." He grabs a bottle of Dr. Schnee and drinks from it. "Hey remember when you told me you used to play the guitar and sing?"

"Yeah it was sometime after my injury." I got a little too drunk that day and let that little piece out.

"You mind performing right now? There's no one in the bar and if you perform good enough, I'll start giving you free beer." Hmm, free beer does sound nice.

"Alright sure, why not you got a guitar I can use?" He nodded, and I began walking to where he had a stage put up, back past the pool tables. I grab the guitar, feels nice...definitely new. I strum a few chords to get used to the type of stings on it then I start playing.

(Man In Black ~ Johnny Cash)

_Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,  
Why you never see bright colors on my back,  
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.  
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on._

_I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,  
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,  
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,  
But is there because he's a victim of the times._

_I wear the black for those who never read,  
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,  
About the road to happiness through love and charity,  
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me._

_Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,  
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,  
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,  
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black._

_I wear it for the sick and lonely old,  
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,  
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,  
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men._

_And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,  
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,  
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,  
Believen' that we all were on their side._

_Well, there's things that never will be right I know,  
And things need changin' everywhere you go,  
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,  
You'll never see me wear a suit of white._

_Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,  
And tell the world that everything's OK,  
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,  
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black_

As the last few chords strum out I heard some cheering and clapping from the few people in the bar, I look to where Joe was to see Cinder sitting down at the bar, a smile on her face. I get off the stage and walk back to them both. I take a seat next to Cinder, and I front of Joe.

"Was that good enough?" Joe nodded happily as he cleaned a few glasses.

"Perfect, and I was just telling Cinder here some stories about you." I slam my head into the table with a groan. "Like the one time you got so drunk you though that the poker table was your girlfriend."

"Please...shut up I already hear that enough from everyone here, I don't need her starting too."

"I don't know, imagining you trying to pick up a table might be interesting." Cinder said as she sipped what ever soda she was drinking.

I turned to look at her, my head still on the table. "How did the check up go? Any lasting injuries?"

"Yep!" I don't like the way she popped that P. "And Doc said you have to take care of me until it heals!" She said cheerfully. Still weird seeing her like this.

"Alright...I can do that." I look back at Joe. "What time is it?"

"Abooouuutttt 11:30" I sigh before standing up on my chair and walking over to Cinder and carrying her bridal style. A blush shoots up her face, I turn back to Joe.

"I'm taking her to Me and Adams place. Get her acquainted with the house and such." He nodded

"Yeah 'acquainted with the house' alright."

"Fuck you too." I begin walking out of the bar, Cinder in my arms...in fact I'm pretty sure she got closer to my body...must be my imagination.

...

We arrive back at the house as I walk inside, I forgot to lock the door earlier with saving someone and all. I bring her up to my room and sit her up on the bed.

"Alright so this is my room where you will be staying until your whatever heals, my boss Adam lives down the hall. And I will be downstairs on the couch if you need anything. I recommend taking a nap, especially with the morning you had." I get up to leave before she grabs me.

"D-don't go." She said with a soft voice. I do what she says and sit on the bed next to her. I think she's crying..."I just miss them so much."

Oh shit we're having this conversation. "Hey it's alright...let it out." She continued to cry into my chest for quite a bit. Can't really tell how long it was. All I can tell you is that she fell asleep. Allowing me to look at her and take in her cuteness.

"You know maybe life hasn't dealt the shit hand yet...maybe I'm just riding the high of this still." I hug her closer to my chest as I fall asleep my self.

* * *

(Unkown POV)

Coal Black, you have become a thorn in my side taking my would be maiden, and swaying her to your side. It's time for you to learn your lesson...maybe. Yes that'll do nicely. Coal Black you are going to regret ever being born into that miserable life of yours.

"Hazel...release the hounds."

"My-my goddess we haven't been able to fully test them out we have no idea wether or-"

"Did I stutter?" I look at him making my presence known.

"N-No mam."

"Now release the hounds. I want Coal Black dead, and my maiden here. **NOW**!" Hazel flinched at my time before he bowed and left. Most likely to do my bidding.

I look down at my crystal ball seeing Coal and Cinder sleeping on a bed in peace, with only their warmth and undiscovered love to give them comfort. they will soon see that love is not all that its lead to be. They will learn heartbreak if its the last thing they do.

"Enjoy you peace...one day soon it will end, and you joy will become my joy in watching you suffer." I call Tyrian into my chambers.

"Yes my goddess?"

"It appears our previous maiden was a bust. I have need for you to find a suitable replacement." He bowed.

"Yess my goddess, right away and with pleasure!" He took off in some direction my gaze returning to Coal sleeping. You will squirm like the worm you are.

* * *

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	6. Just Roll With The Punches

**Welcome to another chapter!**

**So, I mean honestly this chapter will probably be just an info dump chapter. Maybe not? I don't know. Honestly will think of something when I right it.**

**TheFrostZone: I mean, I guess one day is quick? I could make it quicker. But yeah I noticed those too after you mentioned it. Will have to go and fix those at some point. And honestly I have no idea where I am going either. Kinda making it up as I go.**

**You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as ****life****. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep ****moving**** forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how ****winning**** is done!" ~ Rocky(1976)**

* * *

So here I am, lying in my bed right. Like every other workday, Adam yells from downstairs that the coffee is ready. I get up, I take a shower and I enjoy my coffee as we cut down trees. Now that's what supposed to happen! I'm not supposed to wake up with one of the main villains of RWBY lying on my chest. I'm honestly confused on how to handle this situation. How did I even get here in the first place? Oh right she was running from a seer, I shot it and she got hurt and I'm taking care of her.

"COAL, I'M BACK FROM MY TRIP! COFFEE IS READY, WE GOT TO MAKE UP FOR THE WORK I KNOW YOU DIDN'T DO!" Adam calls from down stairs. I sigh as I look back down at Cinder who looks really cute when sleeping.

I gently poke her side. "Cinder I have to get up I got work."

"Mmmm, five more minutes..." She drawled. I sigh as I slowly lift her up, which by the way is extremely hard when you can only use one arm. I gently place her back down and walk towards the bathroom.

"Man aren't you a sorry sight." I mutter to myself as I scratch beard. The beard that comes off my face by less than an inch. I walk over to the shower turning it on and letting it heat up, before brushing my teeth. I walk into the shower lathering up in soap and putting shampoo and conditioner in my hair.

Are you one of those people who sing in the shower, because boy am I! It was one of the things my sister would tease me about. But jokes on her! I'm a great singer! Well...decent is good enough.

_Fly me too the moon, let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like oonnn, Jupiter and Mars." _Ahh, Frank Sinatra one of the best singers ever. Fly Me Too The Moon was my mother's favorite song. You know thinking back on it my mom had like 12 favorite songs...weird.

I walk out of the shower stretching my warmed muscles and heading back to the mirror and looking at myself. My hair is still longer than I like, so I guess today is another hat day until I get it cut. I walk out of the shower with the towel around my waist. Though I can't help but feel like I forgot about something.

I look around the room, trying to find what was making me feel uncomfortable. My eyes land on Cinder whose awake, with wide eyes. "Well, shit."

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I." She stammers seeing me walk out.

I sigh before I respond. "Hey the shower is open, water should be hot. After your done just raid my closet I guess? We will have to get you clothes at some point."

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I." She still seems broken. Now I feel awkward...now her face is turning red. Great.

"I'm just going to grab some clothes, to get dressed while you take a shower." She nodded before bolting into the bathroom slamming the door shut...weird.

I grab my green button up plaid, jeans and underwear before getting dressed as quick as I can. As I leave I grab my hat, that was hanging on the end of my bed.

"Hey Coal, thought you were still in the shower since it was running." Adam calls as he sees me walk downstairs and head towards the kitchen.

"Oh, yeah we need to talk about that. I'll make the coffee." I walk over to the already brewed coffee and poured it into the two cups already there. Adding two sugars and a spoonful of creamer into both, before heading to the table where Adam was sitting.

"So what do we need to talk about? Is it how you broke the shower because it's still running."

"No-no. Yesterday someone was in the forest running from Grimm so I helped them out. Took her to docs and she was injured." Adam nodded as I sipped my coffee. Slowing my train of thought down. "She needed a place to stay, no immediate family to go to. And doc elected me to house her."

"Do I get a say in this?" He asked, in that tone where their joking but being serious at the same time. "Because this is technically my house."

I gave him a look that made him start laughing. "No. You don't." I take another sip of my coffee before we heard the shower upstairs turning off.

"So, is she cute." I do a spit take and I began to cough.

"Holy shit you-you really know how to be fucking random." I finally was able to stop coughing and I took a big gulp from my coffee. "Like God damn, you are really good at just saying shit randomly."

"It's what in good at. I'm just the King Of Random."

"Your not Grant Thompson."

"Who?" Shitshitshitshitshitshit oh look distraction. We hear someone walk downstairs so I lean my head out of the kitchen to see Cinder wearing jeans...and my lucky hoodie.

"Oh, Cinder would you like some coffee?" The moment she noticed me she blushed and gave a hush yes. She sat down next where my cup was and Adam started to talk to here as I grabbed a third cup.

"So, you must be the person who got hurt yesterday." He sticks his hand out for a handshake. "I'm Adam Opal, owner of Opal Carpentering and owner of this house."

She reached out to grab his hand and began to shake it. "Cinder Fall. Person who got hurt and is staying in your house."

"Cinder how much sugar and creamer do you want?" I began reaching for the creamer in the fridge.

"Oh! Uh 2 sugars and three spoonfuls of creamer please!"

"Alright, 2 sugars, 3 creams coming right up." I put that into the coffee I poured and walked back to the table. "Here you go."

"Thank you." She grabbed the cup and took a sip before giving me a nod.

"Alright so me and Adam are going to head out into the forest to chop some trees down so we have heat this winter. If you need food it's in the fridge. And if you need anything else, don't be afraid to ask anyone in the village. Just say Coal sent you." She gave me a nod as me and Adam finish our coffee.

"Hey Coal, bring Frontier Justice with you. Grimm week begins soon, and I want a little more heat to protect ourselves." I walk over to a closet near the doorway, reaching in and grabbing the shotgun.

"Gotcha, alright Cinder we'll probably be gone for like 3-6 hours depending on Grimm activity." She gave another nod as she continued to drink her coffee.

"Have a safe trip!" She calls as we leave the house."

* * *

_BANGBANG_

"You know Adam, for it being close to Grimm month, there are very little Grimm out." I say as I reload Frontier Justice...you know what? WE'RE just going to say FJ from now on. Ease of use you know?

"That's because they build up numbers, so that when Grimm month begins they can wreck more havoc." I nod as we continue walking through the forest

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I lived in this village for 10 years." I actually don't know how old Adam is. Does that make me a bad roommate? Probably.

"Fair enough. Hey Adam, I never actually asked how old you are, always assumed you were in your early thirties."

"That's because I am. I'm 35." That's not early thirties...but I'll let it pass.

"Hmm a 20 year old and a 35 year old living together in the same house. Who would've thunk it." We come towards where we stopped cutting a few days before. The truck is parked a bit away, as to not attract Grimm to us. 'Standard procedure' Adam said.

"Alright let's continue working. If you need a break take it, we can't risk getting too tired if Grimm show up." He walked over to a tree with an axe. "You stand guard got the first 30 minutes, then we will switch."

I nod as I walk over to a tree and l lay back into it. "I guess when it's my turn to chop I'll hand you FJ." He nodded as he started chopping.

Honestly not doing anything is pretty boring. When I used to play football for my highschool,my senior year, you would always be moving, or doing something at least. And combine that with everything else I was doing in and after school, I've always had a busy life. I only started really relaxing my recent years in college.

I look over as the tree Adam was chopping fell down. He looked back at me as he picked up the chainsaw. Time to really start paying attention. The chainsaw will make noise...noise Grimm are attracted too.

I begin to whistle as I run a hand through my hair. Better to sing something happy...keep my nerves straight. Don't want any accidents, non happy accidents. I let the sound of a man hacking a logs with an axe relax me.

"_Rise up this mornin', Smiled with the risin' sun, Three little birds, Pitch by my doorstep! Singing sweet songs, of melodies pure and tru-_"

_SNAP_

I immediately snap around FJ pointed where I heard the noise. Adam's still chopping wood, good. I walk towards where I heard the sound, it must have came from behind the bush. I slowly get close moving as quiet as I can, before pushing the bush aside and aiming FJ at a...cute bunny. D'awww it's cute no need to point a gun at it.

_SNAPSNAPSNAPSNAPSNAP_

I quickly jump around, twigs snapping all around me. Okay maybe I'm not so good. Some weird looking dog comes from out of the thick forest I squint as I look closer...it looks almost...like...a Grimm.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." I say as more Grimm begin appearing out of the forest. Now their running at me, so out of complete sense I run the other way.

"ADAM, DON'T TRUST THE DOGGOS THEIR EVIL I SAY EVIL!" I yell as I enter the clearing where Adam was.

"WHAT?" He yells back before seeing the 15 GrimmHounds behind me. "OH SHIT, HOLD THEM OFF IM GETTING THE TRUCK!" He says before taking off towards the truck

_BANGBANGBANG_

"EAT LEAD YOU EVIL MOTHERFUCKERS!" I yell as I turn around firing FJ into them...I just killed three...

_BANGBANGBANG_

Three...more? Man these fucking things are weak as shit. I pull out Sequoia and shoot.

_BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG_

6 more, three left...no more time to reload. I begin running to where the truck is. Trying to reload with no hands is hard for your information. I see head lights coming towards me, I keep running until Adam was right on me before I dived out of the way, allowing him to kill the last three before hopping into the bed of the truck before reloading both my guns.

"We good?" I turn to look at Adam who stuck his head out of the driver side of the truck.

"Yeah we are...let's just head home. I don't want to be here anymore, we can always work double another time." He nodded before turning around and heading back to the village. As we drive I see a nevermore flying in the air. So logically I flipped it off hoping that Salem was watching.

"FUCK YOU, YOU EVIL FUCKING BITCH!"

(Salem POV)

My eyes twitching at the sheer audacity of this...this **MORTAL**. He thinks he can mess with me does he? Well **worm **you're going to regret ever crossing me.

"Hazel." I turn may gaze to one of my worshippers

"Yes my lordship?"

"Your dogs failed. And I don't like failure."

"We-Well my lady it was still in alpha stage undergoing development...w-we could use this failure to make them better?"

"Fine...make them better."

(My POV)

I mean what's the worst that can happen? She decide to destroy the village like My Turn? Wait...oh shit what did I do. I climb onto the roof of the car hitting the sun roof lightly as to tell him to open it, which he does. I hop in sitting in the passenger seat as he closed the roof up.

"So, what the hell happened?" Adam asked as we follow the path we made riding back in forth in the truck.

"Some weird ass small wolf Grimm started chasing me when I went looking for where a noise were originating from." I began inspect my guns making sure that nothing got damaged.

"They look familiar to you at all?"

"Nope. They looked just like normal dogs but Grimm." I explain as I look around. I think we forgot stuff...

"Hmm weird. You know Coal sometimes I regret hiring you."

"I would regret hiring me too."

"You just have this air around you."

"Oh like how?"

"Like you have this air around you where you just know what's going on, but never say anything, or act on it." That...is very insightful, weird because it's true too.

"Weird. Never noticed, though I do know how somethings are going to happen, because I'm just used to reading people." I look closer at him noticing that his finger is tapping with a green outline.

"Well in any case, I'm also glad you're working with me...life never seems boring around you."

"Hey Adam?" He looks over at me curiously. "Do you have any nervous ticks?"

"Yeah when I happy, excited, or just nervous I tap my fingers. Why?" He stopped tapping his finger being aware of it now.

"Because your finger was highlighted in a neon green." He looked at me like I was crazy.

"Are you insane?"

"Probably, but we can talk about that later. Your finger is still highlighted with neon green!" I say a little louder pointing at his finger which was tapping again.

"No it's not." The tapping stopped as the green glow disappeared.

"Huh weird it just went away." I look back at him shrugging. "I have no idea why it would be highlighted though."

"Maybe your semblance?"

"Why would it be my semblance?" I mean how long have I had aura for? Like 4ish months? "I haven't had aura for too long."

"Just a suggestion. You could never know though, you're good at poker. Could just be how your soul represents yourself." He turned left and we could see the gates to the village.

"I don't know, guess I just wanted to discover my semblance later." I look and nod to one of the guards manning the gate. "Don't want the readers thinking I'm some powerful Gary Stu."

"Readers? What readers? Who's Gary?"

"I'm a poker player."

"Oum dammit Coal." We slow down as we enter the gates and come to a stop outside docs. "You hurt at all Coal?"

"Nah I'm good. They didn't even come close to me in that exchange." He nods and continued toward the house parking in the shed that's close but not near the house.

We exit the vehicle and walk towards the house. I finally holster Sequoia, and sling FJ over my shoulder because it has a lanyard. I go through the door and immediately head towards the couch, I noticed Cinder going upstairs looking at me in shock. I jump into the couch face first before screaming into a pillow.

I hear some walking behind me, so I turn and see Adam and Cinder looking at me in concern. "What? Can't a man yell?"

"Coal? Are you alright?" Cinder asks softly. She's wearing her glasses...guess she was reading?

"Kinda? I don't know? I mean just having reality hit me finally." I mean, you ever have those moment where you're doing something like flying and all of the sudden reality sets in that you're flying 40,000 feet in the air in a metal tube? Yeah that's what I'm going through.

Adam leans closer to Cinder and whispered , "You should take Coal to Joe's and have a nice night help him in wind. He did just kill Grimm that he's never seen before, that'll always get you wound up"

"That sounds nice...for him I mean." She whispered back. I didn't have the heart to tell them I heard.

I sit up take my hat off and run my hand through my hair. I began moving towards the door as I put my hat back on. I look back at Cinder who was confused at my actions.

"So are we going to Joe's?" She nods and puts shoes on and follows me outside as we begin our walk.

"You heard us whispering?" She asked from the right of me. She's not wearing heels so she might be around 5'7? Yeah that seems about right. If fandoms correct she's 5'11 in heels.

"Yeah, don't know why I didn't say anything." We continue walking, talking to people as we pass by. "So I never really asked Cinder, what do you like to do in your past time?"

"Umm, I read. I'm pretty nerdy so I watched Star Wars a lot. I played some video games, but never got too into it." I nod as we pass by Billy's.

"Hey Cinder, you comfortable with weapons?" I say as I stop in front of the store.

"No not really. My family never really thought we needed one." Well then time to change that.

"Well as your impromptu family, I have made the decision to arm you with a weapon of your choice." She looked at me like I was crazy...I probably am.

"And why would I need to arm myself?"

"Because you are currently living out on the frontier with me and you need something because, well Grimm." I say as I enter Billy's Gun Smithy Cinder right behind me. I look back at her, "Billy here does special requests if you want, otherwise walk around the store and pick out something you like."

"What about money I-I can't afford it?"

"Don't worry I have it, and Billy owes me a few favors for things I helped fix for him." She seemed to want to say more before I shushed her off.

"Ah, Coal my dude it's been a bit how can I help you my man." I turn around to see Billy walking out of the back room oil all over him.

"Ah well I just would like to stock up on some ammo, and a friend of mine is here to pick up a weapon. Because she need to protect herself." He nodded before adding the restock of ammo on my bill.

"So...is it the raven haired chick?" I look around the store seeing if Cinder would over hear us.

"Yeah She is." He begins laughing hard.

"Coal, my dude. How do you manage these things?"

"What do you mean." He puts the boxes of ammo in a bag. While we continue waiting on Cinder.

"You somehow, anytime I see you, have a hot women near you." He pulled out some gun oil from under the counter. I give him a nod and he rings me up for it too. "Like seriously, maybe Darien was right when he said it was all in you cologne."

"What the hell is wrong with you people? I literally don't do anything." He hands me the bag of supplies and leans against the wall.

"Well you're obviously doing something. I mean how else does this happen?"

"Luck."

"That actually makes more sense. At least compared to Darien's theories."

"Yeah well, I swear Darien's always high in some really hard shit. So I wouldn't trust his word from the beginning." I began to laugh. "You can't tell if the dragon Grimm that speaks another language is real or not."

"Um, ah Coal?" I turn around to see Cinder behind me. "Would this be okay?"

I see the weapon she picked up. Remember that PMM I was looking over? Yeah that's what she picked, it actually would be the most useful gun here for her. We can always get her a concealed holster...yeah that should work. I look back at Billy who seemed to have the same idea as me.

"Yeah that will work perfectly. We can work on your aim with it when we have free time." I reach my hand, as if I was asking her to put the gun in my hands she does as I inspect it fully. "Yeah that'll work perfectly."

I place the gun in the counter, Billy already ringing us up. "Alright my dude the total is 2500 lien." I nod as I prepare to get some money, I look over at Cinder...holy shit she just looked like aha had a heart attack.

"Alright here you go." I hand him over the money which he puts in his pocket. He reaches under the counter again and grabs a concealed holster. I grab it and put it in the bag. "Hey Billy I never asked, you wouldn't happen to have a shooting range?"

"Nope, Sorry my dude. Don't have a license to work one." I nod giving him a it's okay symbol, I pick up the bag holding all of our items and tap Cinder on the shoulder.

"Hey, we're good to go. Are we still going to Joe's? Or do you want o head home?" I say as I leave the store Cinder following behind me.

"Um, I mean I guess we can still head to Joe's." She said as she begins to walk beside me. "I mean that's why we came out here right?"

"Yep. Just wanted to make sure you still wanted to go." She nodded. "Oh before I forget because I know I will, here's your holster. Instead of the outside of your jeans it goes on the inside, so you gun will be hidden from anyone looking."

She begins to put the holster on, I hand her the gun to put it in, which she does. Once she adjusts it where she is comfortable. She smiles as she nods in satisfaction.

"See there you go." I spread my arms in a dramatic manner, "No need to frown Coals in town!"

"But I wasn't frowning? At all." She looked at me curiously.

"Schematics." We walk up to Joe's as I open the door for her. "After you m'lady"

"Thank you my kind sire" she said with a giggle. We both walk inside heading towards the bar and sit down. As we wait for Joe we smile at each other. You know I really like Cinder apparently...like I like Athena and Amber. But I really like Cinder.

"What can I get you two love birds?" I release a sigh at the sound of Joe's voice.

"What's the special today?" I ask because Joe makes soup, and I really love soup. Like I really love soup.

"Tomato Basil." I nod, one of my favorites.

"I'll take that, and if you have any bread I'll take that as well." He wrote that down then looked over at Cinder.

"What can I get you miss?"

"Ahhh, I'll just have what he's having." Joe wrote that down before walking towards the kitchen in the back.

"So Cinder. Have you seen the new Star Wars trailer?" She looked surprised at my comment.

"They're coming out with a new one? I though they were going to wait longer because of The Last Jedi." A green glow surrounds her leg as she crosses then.

"Yeah, Episode 9. Though I didn't really like The Last Jedi. It felt to rushed for me." Joe comes by with our food and sets it down in front of us before walking away. I look down self my watch I never said I owned, 5:09 pm holy shit time flies.

"I thought the pacing was good. Though that casino scene was just stupid."

"Agreed." We begin to eat our food in silence, soothing my throat from when I was yelling earlier.

"So Cinder are we staying here after we finish, or are we going right home after food?"

"Umm I think we should head home when we finish." I nod as we continue to eat our soup.

* * *

I stumble into my room with Cinder hanging off me. Remember when we said we wanted to head home right after? Yeah we lied we drank a little...maybe a little too much. I fall into the bed head first Cinder landing next to me on my left.

"Mmm, maybes we should-hic-n't have drinkin so much." My voice slurred from the alcohol.

"I-hic-thought we would be good" she replied. I turn my body to face then hug her. "You know Coal you-hic-maaakee me feel sooo safe."

"Do-hic-I know?"

"Yeap, you protected me when I-hic-couldn't protect myself." D'aww she's making me feel all good inside.

"You-hic-know Cinder you-hic-your pretty cute."

"A-hic-am I?"

"Mmmhm." She leans into my hug more and we enjoy each other's presence. "G'night Cinder."

"G'night-hic-Coal."

* * *

**Enjoy the chapter? **

**I honestly did because I believe this is the longest one I wrote, and I feel like I made this chapter very descriptive? I don't know...but I sure did enjoy writing this one**

**As always Review your criticism, and get harsh I'm a big boy! I can take it. And if you enjoyed Follow and Favorite, let's me know I'm doing something right.**

**See you next chapter! **


	7. Women Are Scary

**Ah shit, here we go again.**

**I just want to thank you all for 40 favs, and 61 follows! I came into this with low expectations, knowing I'm not a great writer. But this has absolutely made my month! Onto the Reviews!**

**Guest: I want to thank you for your criticism. It is honestly what I needed to hear, and I'm already planning on doing some me of the things you mentioned.**

**Artemis-ArcherOfCrimson: oof, three days? Never had to stay up that long, only a full 24 hours. Get some sleep my dude!**

**Raidentensho: I though I did Salem decent enough. But I'm going to be honest with all of you, I stopped watching Rwby after Volume 3. Never liked the later volumes.**

**Note: I don't own RWBY, that right belongs to Rooster Teeth!**

**"Forget not the tyranny of this wall...nor the love of freedom that made it fall..." ~ Unknown, Graffiti on the Berlin** **Wall**

* * *

(4 Weeks Later)

It's absolutely pouring outside. Me Adam aren't working today, the wood is water logged. Once wood gets wet it becomes way to much work to chop it. I look around my room bored, Cinder and Adam are downstairs reading enjoying the sound of the rain. My eyes land on my guitar I bought from a merchant when he came through the town. I walk over and grab it before returning to my bed and strumming a few chords.

Hmm what to play what to play...I mean I'm feeling some blues. Maybe some Johnny Cash?

"I hear that train a coming, it's rolling down the bend, and I ain't seen the sunshine since, I don't know when." I'm singing the song like Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line. "I'm stuck in Folsom Prison, and time keeps...draggin' on. But that train keeps a rolling, on down to San Antone."

I take a breathe as I continue the song picking the pace of the song up and adding the guitar strumming to the song. "When I was just a baby my mama told me son, always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns. But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die." I pick up the tempo of the song again. "When I hear the whistle blowin', I hang my head and cry."

I let the song slow to a stop as I finish the first verse of the song. I'm not the best singer, but in a bar when I can play the guitar, I'm able to mask it a little to give a decent performance. I lay the guitar on the bed and head over to my desk where I've kept the map and compass from earlier. I take a seat and unfold the map, I flip it around and look at where I've been taking notes over the past 5ish months.

I pick up a pen as I slowly move towards where I stopped writing previously. I press the pen to the paper...can you get writers block when writing about events that's happened to you? Slowly I begin to write,

'Grimm are weak, like very weak...maybe just perceived as a bigger threat so huntsman are looked at better for more positivity?'

'...Cinders actually very nerdy, which has thrown me through a loop.'

'My semblance is believed to be something that can perceive someone's tell, or rather it highlights something on their person which will clue me in on their thoughts.'

I set the pen aside as I look over what I had written, before folding the map back up and placing the pen on top. I stand up and walk out of the room heading downstairs, straight into the kitchen to make coffee.

"Hey Coal, If you're making coffee make enough for me and Cinder please!" Adam calls from his library study area, Cinder is probably with him.

"Alright!" I pour water into the machine and add grinds to the filter and hitting the brew button. As the coffee brews I open the fridge to grab the creamer and look around for things to make breakfast...hmm we're out of eggs. Looks like I'm eating out today. "Hey Adam, the coffee is brewing! I'm just going to head out to Joe's to eat!"

I hear some shuffling before Cinder shows up nervously in the kitchen doorway. "Can I come, I haven't eaten either."

"Yeah you can come. I'd prefer it actually." She blushed a bit and looked happy.

"Why would you prefer it?" A green glow outlines her feet and hands as she nervously shuffles shifting her weight between her feet and putting her hands behind her back.

"Because eating alone is never fun!" I say with a smile.

"Oh..." The glow moved to her downcast face. Shit...did I say something wrong? Dammit.

"And you are great company to have around." There we go the green glow outlines her smile which already radiated happiness.

"Nice save Coal, nice save." Adam says as he enters the kitchen. "Almost screwed yourself there." He went to the now brewed coffee pouring a cup.

"Save myself from what?" I am confused...what would have screwed me over?

"Oh man, you really are ba-" Cinder just elbowed him in the side getting him to cough, surprisingly not spilling any coffee. "Nothing. Nothing. You just saved yourself let's leave it at that."

"We should head out before it gets any wetter." Cinder days as she leave the kitchen, probably to put on some rain gear. I took her out shopping one day so she would have clothes since, well you know.

As soon as she leaves the kitchen I turn to Adam and whisper. "What did I save myself from?" He leaned closer to me making his voice as quiet as possible.

"Women are scary dude...women are scary." That doesn't answer my question...I think? "You think they are all cute and lovable, then they show you their scary side."

"What are you on about?" I give him a questioning stare.

"You don't know yet you're young." A lightbulb light in his head. "You can be saved! You can be saved!"

"Adam what the hell are you on?"

"I haven't slept in 2 days." I sigh as I take the cup of coffee from him and pour it out.

"Forgive me father for I have sinned." I sigh as I look back at Adam. "Now go the hell to sleep."

"But I got tax reports I have to do." Shit he's right. "And they're due tomorrow!"

"Well we have the money, just promise to try and finish it quickly, then head to bed." I point at his eyes. "Your bags have bags dude."

"Alright, I'll try to have to done today." He left the kitchen probably heading back to his study.

"Jesus 2 days. I can barely stay up for 14 hours, I can barely think about 48." I shake my head before walking to the closet grabbing a black jacket, as it's currently 37 degrees and raining. I believe we are somewhere near October? Maybe November? It's been awhile since I've seen a calendar...I wonder why that is.

"You ready to go?" I look back at Cinder who came downstairs in jeans and a thin red sweatshirt. I nod as she moves towards the closet grabbing a brown jacket.

"Yep, you got everything you need?" I ask hinting towards wether or not she has her gun on her.

"Absolutely." She pats the left side of her hip. "Right here!"

I nod as I open the door to the outside letting the sound of heavy rain to become present. "Shall we?"

"We shall." She says back with a smile as she goes through the door, which I follow behind closing the door. We begin walking towards Joe's passing by the normal shops and stores. People aren't out today, because well the rain is borderline typhoon levels of pouring.

"It's raining cats and dogs out here." I say loudly to be heard over the rain.

"Why would it be raining cats and dogs?"

"You've never heard that expression before?"

"No should I have?"

"I mean I don't know, it was very common where I come from." Hmm weird, does Remnant not have certain expressions from earth?

"You never said where you came from." I look at her, even though visibility is low in this rain. "All you ever said was that you came from a village somewhere. You haven't even told Adam where you came from."

"I ahh...come from a village called The United States. It was pretty small not really well know, we kept to ourselves." She nodded happily as I continued to talk. "And one day I decided that I didn't want to live there so I left heading into the Emerald forest."

"How did you get to this village?"

"I met two people, their names were Qrow, and Amber." She nods along listening intently. "After I met them in an encounter where Qrow almost killed me. I kinda connected with them and we became friends, the last time I saw Qrow was 3ish months ago? Something like that."

"How close were you too Amber?" That's a little out of the blue. "Did you guys become good friends?"

"I mean I'd like to think so, but I haven't seen her since that first encounter." She walked a little closer to me.

"That's good."

"How's that good?" Good I haven't seen Amber? Hmm.

"That's good you have friends around-where are they now?" The green glow surrounds her hands and feet as she does her feet shuffling and her hands behind her back again.

"In Vale, the work their-huntsman. They work for a man named Ozpin? I think that's what it was."

"They know Ozpin?"

"Who is Ozpin, I've only ever heard him, never got told who he was and what he did." Truth...even though I already know what he does and who he is.

"He is the Headmaster of Beacon Academy." There we go, now I won't look like an idiot when talking about him in front of people now.

"Hmm. Alright then, since we're talking about where people come from where do you come from." I shiver from the cold. "I know it's Mistrial, but I would like to know more if you're okay talking about it."

"Oh yeah! I grew up in Mistrial, I wanted to become a huntress when I was little. But as I grew up it slowly became out of reach." She looked a little sad, did her family stop her from doing it? "My family wasn't really the most supportive of that dream, and as I got older my dreams shifted."

"Shifted how?" I ask curiously.

"I wanted to get into writing and art, which my parents were way more supportive of."

"I don't know the feeling sadly." She looked at me turning her head sideways about. "I wanted to get into Computer Engineering, and psychology. Which my parents were supportive off until they found out I had to leave."

"That's...unfortunate?"

"Yeah. Doesn't matter now...said somethings I shouldn't have said, they said somethings, I left. But it's all in the past now."

We were passing by Billy's when we noticed some guards standing outside. "What's Atlas doing here?" I turn to look at Cinder as she point at the guards insignia. Huh Atlas is here, welp time to find out.

"Hello, is Billy's shop closed down?" I walk up to the guards as they turn and look at me...the more I look at them the more they don't look like people.

_"Scanning...Scanning...Scanning complete weapons detected: Activating VIP Emergency mode."_ Uh oh...that doesn't sound good. They point their guns at me. I quickly jump in front of Cinder, pull out Sequoia and fire a shot...which missed, I really need to work on my aim up close.

The door to the shop flew open revealing a Winter Schnee who looked really distraught. "STAND DOWN!" The robots immediately lower their weapons and returned to their original post.

"Can we come in?" She looked over at us with a Sorry look noticing Sequoia in my hand.

"Ye-Yes I'm so sorry, please come in." I sigh as I turn around to face Cinder.

"Let's just camp out here for a bit. No need to stay out in the rain when obviously something is happening here." She nodded as she got closer to my body...most likely shaken up from the encounter we just had. "Hey it's alright you're good, I'll protect you."

"Th-Thanks." She hugged my arm as we walked in.

* * *

Me and Cinder are currently sitting side by side on chairs that Billy pulled out. He is currently talking to Ironwood and Winter about lodging. Apparently they were heading to Vale when the storm kicked up and they had to stop somewhere. I just got unlucky when I walked passed that the sensed the weapons on me and Cinder.

"Hey Coal...what are we doing here anyway?" She leans her head into my shoulder shivering.

"I'm interested in what's going on here" I take off my jacket, making her lift her shoulder and I hand it to her. "Here wear this, you're freezing."

She takes it from me, adding another layer stoping her shivering a bit. She scoots the chair over and hugs me, I can feel the cold seeping through the jackets. "Thwanks, C-Coal " she tries to say through her shivering.

"Mhmm" I wrap my arms around her in a attempt to warm her up. "Can't let you get a cold now, can we?" I feel her nod in my hug.

"Ah Coal my dude, now let me properly introduce to my friend James Ironwood, and his assistant Winter Schnee." Billy says as he walks out of the back room.

"Hi, can I ask why you have robots who threaten to shoot people on the Frontier with weapons?" Because honestly I'm still pissed about that.

"We are in a unknown area, I only knew one person so I put them in protection mode." Seems legit I guess. "Though they shouldn't have detected a threat unless you were pointing a weapon at one of them."

"I literally walked up thinking they were people. Then they tried to shoot me and my friend here." I pointed at the still shivering Cinder. "And I did not appreciate it."

"Once again, I am sorry. I'm pretty sure they malfunctioned and detected weapons where there were none." Ironwood stool his robotic hand out. "I give my sincerest apologies."

"Apology is accepted, just make sure they don't shoot innocent people please?" He nodded before gesturing towards Winter.

"This here is my associate, and since Billy has only room for one person, he said you and your boss Adam would have enough room to share for her." My eye began to twitch, like horribly...even Cinder's looking at me weird

"Y-Yeah, sure let's go with that shall we." My gaze turned to Billy who started to sweat a little. "Billy I expect free ammo next time I see you." He nodded hurriedly.

I began to sit up, Cinder falling suite. I look at Cinder and gesture her to follow us as we step back into the rain. Wait did I leave my jacket inside? I look back at Cinder who looks warm in 3 layers...nope it's just being used.

"Are we really going to walk in the rain?" I turn around to see Winter still in the doorway hesitant to walk out side.

"Yes-yes we are." I point at Cinder. "Me and her have to go and get food, you are welcome to follow. Or you can just go to the house and meet Adam."

"Where is the house?" I pointed to the south where the house is, which is probably a 5-6 minute walk. "I think food sounds nice when I think about it."

I sigh as Cinder hugs my arm again and we finish the last minute walk to Joe's. I walk in with Cinder and Winter right behind me. Cinder takes both of the jackets off and places them in the coat hanger revealing her thin red sweatshirt.

"Alright well as you can see this is Joe's bar. There's pool on the right, poker in the back and the actual bar on the left." Me and Cinder walk over to the bar and sit down. Winter sat down to the right off me while Cinder was too my left.

"Ah, Coal And Cinder nice seeing you two here again." After we got drunk and all that we kind of stopped talking for a bit, it was only for a 2 weeks. We smoothed it over...but those were the most awkward two weeks I've ever had. "And who's this? You know Coal, the more times I see you the more women surround you."

"Shut the fuck up." I gesture towards Winter. "This is Winter, her and Billy's friend are staying in town until the storm blows over."

"I know her. She and Qrow used to come by with the Atlas general when the worked together."

"The why the hell did it ask then?"

"To make fun of you."

I sigh as I put my face in my hands, Cinder patting my back sympathetically. "You know Cinder, you're the only person I can trust." I roll my head to look at her. "You don't make fun of me like the mean people."

"I do, you're just not listening half the time." Really? Does everyone I know make fun of me? I mean I make fun of me...

"Traitors...all of you." I look back at Joe. "Can I get an omelette or something?" He nods, moving on to take orders from Cinder and Winter.

"How do you know Qrow?" I look at winter who was trying to begin conversation. "No offense, you just don't look like you would be friends with a huntsman."

"Friends is a loose term." She looked at me curiously. "He's a dickhead who almost blew my brains out when I first met him, reminds me of my younger brother almost."

"The almost killing you?"

"No the dickhead part." She nodded as the door to the bar opened.

"What is this? A family reunion." Holy shit. Qrow's here. I look at Winter seeing exactly what you would expect. Pure unbridled rage. "Oh shit and you have Ice Queen here."

"What are you doing here Qrow?" Winter looks really, really close to snapping with him just being here.

"Came here to see my good friend Coal. Can I not do that?" Qrow, please stop antagonizing, I'm the only one in the crossfire and I don't want to die.

"Hmph!" There's the pretentious noise. I might as well step in before this gets worse.

"Qrow can you stop antagonizing her using me? I really don't want to die today, or ever do that matter." He turned to me noticing Cinder who was sitting close to me.

He pointed at her. "Who's She? Someone I should know" Jesus is everything around here going to go at a mile a minute?

I slam my head into the table loudly and sigh, getting another sympathetic pat from Cinder. "Can we just like...calm done? I haven't had coffee yet and you're already going to give me a migraine."

"Alright, Alright I'll calm down. I won't do anything unless Ice Queen does something."

"And seriously. Why are you here?" I lift my head up, my forehead throbbing from when I hit it.

"Amber wanted to say hi, but couldn't come so she sent me." Alright reasonable enough. I feel Cinder wrap around my left arm after he said that. "Though, I think you have that situation under control." I look a Cinder seeing a green glow surrounding her eyes that radiate jealousy.

"Well tell her that I said hi back when you leave." He nods sitting down next to Cinder, as she hugged my arm harder. Mind out of the gutter Coal, Mind out of the gutter. Two 'mounds' were really pushing against my arm.

"You got it bud." He leaned over the counter be fore yelling. "YO JOE BRING ME MY USUAL!"

I look back down at Cinder seeing her face look very...passive? I don't know? I nudge her a little bit. "Hey what did you order?"

"The same as you." She mumbled into my shirt. "Didn't know what else to eat."

"Order up" Joe slides 3 omelettes towards me, Winter and Cinder. "Coal the coffee is still brewing, I'm assuming the usual there?"

"Yep good ole coffee." He probably means Irish coffee, which is my favorite. Joe grabs a bottle of whiskey before sliding it down to Qrow who gave a grunt to signal thanks. I take a sip of coffee, tasting the whiskey in it and smiling.

"Thank you Joe." Cinder unhooks from my arm and began eating, I do the same.

I begin whistling a tune, it's In Hell I'll be Good Company's opening whistle. Great song and I love the banjo, just sounds so good always had a addictive taste afterwords where you just wanted to keep listening.

"Coal what song are you singing this time?" Joe asks drinking from his own cup of coffee.

"It's aaaa song from my old town." He nods as I take a sip from my coffee. "It's called In Hell I'll be Good Company."

"Sounds...cheerful?"

"I mean, it's very bluegrass. And the lyrics themselves sound like something from a blues song." I take a bite of the omelette smiling after putting some food in my gut. "Perfect as always Joe."

"Thank you. It used to be my fathers recipe." He continued to drink from his coffee. He looks at Cinder before his jaw drops looking at an empty plate where an omelette used to be, I followed suite. "D-do you want more?"

"Yes please." She was nodding her head very excitedly. You know so far so good, I learned that Cinder had a huge appetite and that Qrow and Winter don't like each other. Speaking of those two.

"Have you two seen where Winter and Qrow went." I look around the bar seeing just me Cinder and Joe inside. "Because I don't see them anywhere."

"Oh they went outside, you were off in your own world." He pointed to the open door. "They were arguing and I told them to go outside."

"We're fucked..."

* * *

**Hello, welcome to my humble abode. Did you enjoy the chapter? **

**So I might as well clear a few things, the Grimm in this version of Remnant will be weaker. I want Huntsman, and other people being the main villains. Will Salem make Grimm more powerful in this world idk at the moment. But what I do know is that I'm having Grimm be weaker, and only be perceived as deadly. Won't be a huge plot point, but it is one! Another thing is pacing, I need someone to tell me if my pacing is good, I don't know at what chapter I should do certain things etc.**

**As always Follow and Favorite if you enjoyed, leave a review on what you think I should do differently. **

**See you all next chapter!**


	8. Uh Oh!

**PaRTnER YoU'Re aBoUt tO yEE yOuR lAsT HaW**

**Man I was doing so good being on schedule with updates to. I'll explain more on the end, but big oof.**

**How are you all doing? Having a good day? Hopefully this update will make it that little much better. Now let's go onto reviews!**

**Artemis-ArcherOfCrimson: thank you! Yeah, I'm pretty dumb about feelings unless people are blunt about it. Which sucks because I find out 3 months later that the girl I was chatty with liked me and I'm still sitting there going "Bwah"**

**"The biggest things in life, are always defined by the smallest things." ~My Algebra 2 teacher on Polynomials and Greatest Common Factor.**

* * *

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" I push the door to the bar open as I rush outside. I look around for Qrow and Winter, because as you can guess. They. Are. Going. To. Fight.

"Coal wait up" I turn around to see Joe and Cinder running up behind me. I whip my head back around still looking for them. They are going to destroy the village in their fight. And as someone who lives here regularly, I don't want to not be able to live somewhere.

_'CLANG' 'BANG' 'SLASH'_

Did I just hear 'slash' as in the the words? What kind of witch craft is that. "There they are." I look over to where I heard the fighting seeing dirt flying and the two suspects in the middle of the dirt storm. Damn I can barely see them move.

I run over yelling. "STOP FIGHTING, FUCKING STOP! YOU'RE GOING TO DESTROY THE VILLAGE!"

_'BANG'_

Holy shit Qrow shot at me, he fucking shot at me. I pull out Sequoia firing a shot into the dirt cloud.

_'BANG'_

Ha! Take that! Shoot at me again I dare you! The dust storm stopped and it let up a bit showing a very pissed Qrow and Winter. "Uhhh, stop fighting?" Oh no they're walking towards me. "Um, can I get a 10 second head start?"

"5" Qrow said in a calm voice.

"C'mon man I didn't even hit you, or Winter."

"4"

"Okay then" I start running away hearing Qrow say 3 in the background gotta go fast. I run past Joe and Cinder, the latter giving me a very confused look.

"COAL GET YOUR SORRY ASS BACK HERE?" Realization hit her face, as a look of concern took over.

"Joe, can I hide in your bar?" I'm out of breathe stoping maybe 50 yards from where Qrow is.

"Nope"

"Fuck well, Cinder I will give you my coffee machine in my will" She still looks confused somewhat. Ending with that I start running towards the forest. Will I lose Qrow there? Probably not. Why is he even mad anyway, I just wanted them to stop fighting.

I run through an opening and into the forest. Adrenaline pumping I just kept running not looking behind be hoping to gather some distance between me and Qrow, who for whatever reason is pissed off with me.

I continue to push branches out of my way as I ran. Wait, why am I even running? I look behind me, only to see I'm not able to see the exit to the forest. The brush too thick and dense. "I had to just run into the forest didn't I?" I say under my breathe as I begin walking back to the village.

I'll probably just face the music with Qrow and Winter. I mean why were they mad at me? All I did was try to get them to stop. And I'm pretty sure I missed my shot, unless I didn't. But that's just a theory. I look a Sequoia, which was still in my hand, and reload the the single bullet I had shot. Never know when Grimm will appear you know. Don't want to be caught with my pants down.

I sigh as I start spinning my revolver, doing something to make the trek back a little bit easier. Hmm maybe I should sing a little bit? I've been sings a lot more than usual lately just been in the mood to. "What's the use in buying a car if you won't buy gasoline"

I jump on a fallen tree and began balancing on it. "We used to be two under par, now we can't get on the green" and continue to spin Sequoia, now in rhythm with my singing. "I don't know where it went, but it sure went a flying, nah nah nah nah don't remember these words."

I hop off the log as I try to remember the lyrics before deciding to just move on from them. "You let the blues move in and Now I-I-I'm moving out." One of my favorites, very bluesy and very easy to vibe with. I can hear the guitar playing in my head still. Oh look I can see light again. I walk out of the forest seeing a frantic Cinder looking furious with Qrow. I walk up closer to hear a little bit of their conversation.

"What do you mean it's his fault? He was trying to stop you two!"

"HE SHOT AT US!"

"AND?" her face getting redder with anger

"You don't interrupt two huntsman fighting unless you are a huntsman." He features to Winter. "It's an unwritten rule!"

"That's fucking stupid." They all turn to me as I approach them Cinder giving a sigh of relief. "Technically I'm protecting my village from an unknown threat who could bring absolute destruction. I have the right to defend myself."

"Godda-how do you even know valien law if you've never been to Vale?"

"I read a lot. I like to know things about things I don't know so I know them." That confused everyone, that confused me and I wrote it! Wait...

"That made absolutely no fucking sense kid." Qrow pulls out his flask and takes a swig.

"Now, can you explain to me why the hell you tried to kill me?"

"I wasn't going to kill you, just very mildly hurt you."

I sigh as I look at winter who was kinda standing there awkwardly. "What do you have to say for your self?"

"I never tried to chase you?"

I hold my gaze on her making her shift a little bit before moving my head back to Cinder. "Let's just head inside no point standing in the rain." I grab her arm and drag her back towards Joe's. She just looked like her brain shut off

"Whahawha"

* * *

(Salem POV)

I swirl the wine I had in a glass as I watched Coal head back into the bar. Soon my revenge will be complete. I press a button on my chair calling Tyrian. "Tyrian, how's the search for the new maiden coming?"

"Very good my queen." I hear some shuffling as he moves something "On that topic I have her right here, say hi~"

"Mmmmm, mm-mmmm!" I hear a feminine voice, trying to speak out, but only a gag stopping her.

"Good, good." I take a sip of my wine and look out one of my many windows. "Bring her to me immediately, we have training to do."

"Yes, my queen. It shall be a few days I am currently in Mistrial so it will take a bit to travel by foot."

"That's alright, we have all the time that we would need." I take another sip as I end the call.

* * *

(My PoV)

I sit back down at the bar, my coffee cold. Cinder is sitting down where she was previously. I shiver as I finish my coffee. "Fuck I hate cold coffee."

"Then why did you drink it? You didn't have to finish it, joe would have reheated it." Cinder said drinking some of her water.

"I also hate reheated coffee." I turn around a bit to face her. "Makes the coffee taste worse, a sin t coffee kind"

"Mhm, sure." She moves a seat over to sit next to me, as I just sat down wherever near my coffee. "I am also not that crazy about coffee."

"We're going to change that." Damn Joe's is still not inside yet. Why are they still out in the rain? Is he talking to them? I hope so, maybe Qrow will get a talking too.

She leans in a bit closer to my face. "I might like the taste of coffee more if it came from someone." That's weird, coffee comes from beans...unless she wants me to make coffee?

To show her up a little I lean in closer. "I guess I'll have to make that happen then." She looks at my lips and starts to lean a bit closer in. Why is she moving closer? I said I would make her coffee?

"COAL! Qrow here would like to apologize to you fo-" Joe yelled as he entered the bar. He looked at the situation me and Cinder were in. "Am I interrupting anything?"

She jumped back to where she was originally seated red in the face. "N-no your good we were just talking abouut-"

"The best ways to make coffee, And boy did the discussion get heated. But we were close to making a breakthrough when you walked in." I say, because is that not what we were talking about?

"What he said." Cinder pointed at me.

"Sure, sure. Anyways Qrow here would like to apologize for making scared for you life." He pointed at Qrow who at the very least looked somewhat guilty.

"Ah, yeah um. My bad?" He looked terrified for a moment looking at where Cinder is before he calms down and continues his apology. "There are some rules we huntsman use to help protect ourselves, fighting between each other being one of them. And in the heat of the battle I lost my head and thought of you as a huntsman."

"Your good, just buy me coffee and I will probably get over it." He looked like he wanted to say more but shrugged it off.

"That works for me." He sat down to my right, joe walking back behind the bar. I look around for Winter...again as it seems I forgot about her again. There she is, she sits down on the chair Cinder used as a buffer when joe walked in. I look over to her, "I don't think we have met properly."

She turns around and meets my eyes. "I don't think we have." She sticks out her hand, which I grab and began to shake. "Winter Schnee"

"Coal, Coal Black." I pull my hand back as I finally take a look at her. You'd think by now I would have, but that was the last thing in my mind. "So, I know you guys said that you were forced to land due to rain." She nodded, "But does rain really stop bullheads that effectively? I've never been in one."

"Most of the time no. But today is one of the worst days for rain in recent years, thus our bullheads were not fit to fly through them." I hear joe walking up to us, so I turn around to see him with 3 cups of coffee in his hand.

"Alright, one coffee for Coal. From Qrow. And two for the ladies who were outside in the rain waiting for Coal too get back." He hands us all of our coffee, making sure to send one more flare over to Qrow.

I take a sip before turning back to Winter. "Now why were you guys fighting again? I mean I could feel the tension between you guys earlier, I just didn't know how far it went." She took a sip of coffee before turning towards me.

"Can I tell you the truth?" I nod my head while leaning in. "I have no clue. We just never liked each other."

Are you serious that's it? Man whoever is in control of this world really made two people hate each other, 'jus' 'cause'. I call bullshit. "Are you sure? The has never been something he's done to piss you off, and begin this 'hatred'?"

"Nope."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Damn, I was hoping for more. Maybe something to explain why when I tried to separate you too, you tried to kill me." I take a sip of coffee reveling in its flavor. "Perfect, as always Joe."

"Didn't you already say that earlier?"

"When you meet perfection, you must start to make sure that whoever makes it knows it." He nods heading back into the kitchen, for what ever he's doing back there. I look down the bar seeing Cinder look, crestfallen and sad. Uh oh. "So Cinder, I've noticed you have been painting recently. What have you been drawing?"

She looked happy, probably because I roped her into a conversation. "Oh uhhhhh, I kinda wanted to keep it a secret for now?" I looked a little sad on purpose, trying to get a answer from her.

"Oh ok..."

"No, no! Not thats I don't want you to see it! I'm just painting it for you!"

"Really? Why are you doing that?"

"Because I never really got to thank you for saving me..." Aww that's cute. This is a very heart warming feeling. I'm happy now.

"Aw, you didn't need to do that. You being alive is more than enough for me." She gave me a smile before standing up and walking over to me.

"No, but I want to do it for you." I look into her eyes, before hugging her.

"That is one of the nicest things someone has done for me." I feel her return the hug, Oof she's hugging me really tight. She sits down on my lap putting her head against my chest, still holding the hug. Wait...she's sitting on my lap. has stopped working...

"Damn Coal you work fast." I snap out to see Qrow walking up to me.

"Bwah?" I look down at Cinder to see her looking at Qrow a smile on her face...one that looked a bit predatory. "Uhhh, Qrow! Wanna play pool again...at some point today?"

"Yes, sure. Wanna try you luck again?"

"Not really no. It's just something to do while it's raining outside." I feel Cinder shuffle on my thigh...ignore it, ignore it, ignore it. I will not pull a stiffy right here, right now. I hug her a little closer...which proved to also be a mistake for trying to keep my morals.

"Fair enough. Fair enough." He stands up, stretches up a bit. Then starts walking over to where the pool tables were. "I'll start setting up the tables while you do" he gestured to Cinder "That."

I look down at Cinder who curled up against me more like a cat...weird...but cute. I instinctively scratch her head making her blush. I lean closer to her ear "I have to get up." She sighed and hopes off my lap letting me stand up before she takes my seat. I began to walk over to the pool tables, giving a final smile to Cinder.

I see Qrow chalking up his cue. He looks at me and gestures to the board "You break." I nod as I grab my cue and began to chalk it. "Alright kid. We need to talk about a few things." Uh oh, I can feel the air become heavy and serious.

I begin to line up a shot. "What things?" I take a shot breaking the balls, none going in.

He began to line up for a shot at the orange solid. That's not the shot I would've picked. "A certain someone wants to talk to you." He missed his shot before walking over to his chalk. "I just needed to talk to you about this without." He gestured towards everyone at the bar.

As I line up a shot at the orange solid that Qrow perfectly set up for me. "What does he want to talk to me about?" I take a shot nailing the orange into back right pocket.

"Things so important, he wouldn't tell me." I stop what I was doing and I looked up at Qrow to try and read his face only to see him dead serious. I take a breathe before lining up another shot.

"Well, can you tell me who it is at least." Looking at the table...I don't have a really good shot.

"A man named Ozpin." My breathe hitches for a second. Shit that was noticeable, he's giving me a weird look now.

"I-isn't that the guy you and Amber work for?" I take a spastic shot not really aiming. "The one that runs a school?"

"I don't remember telling you that he ran a school." Shit...

"You've told me his name." I move over to my chalk, away from Qrow. "And I asked a traveler who he was." He continued to level a stare that bored into me. "He just told me not to worry about it, he's a headmaster of a school. That's all I got from him."

"Hmm well that's close enough." He went to go 'look' for a shot. But at this point I know he's just using the game to hide out conversation. "But, you don't know this Coal but there's something about you that Ozzy wants. And when Ozpin wants something, he'll make sure he has it."

"Well that doesn't sound villainous at all." I mumble under my breathe as I watch him shoot and miss again.

"No it does. But when he wants something it's actually good." He looked away still chalking his cue. "Most of the time."

"Well...when does he want to talk to me?" I began to line up and shot randomly. The game doesn't matter anymore. "Because..."

"Soon...2 days..." He looked somewhat sorry. "Sorry about it being so short but...whatever Ozpin wants with you is extremely important."

I look over to Cinder seeing her converse with Joe and Winter. "Alright. Alright." I look over at Qrow my face serious. "I'll see him. At the very least we will get it out of the way." I hang my cue up as I began to walk over to the bar. Before stopping, "Can I bring someone with me?"

"Yes...I'm guessing but will be Cinder?"

"Yeah..." He nodded and then walked with me back to the bar. I look down at my hands looking at the creases and callouses. What the fuck. We get back to the bar and Cinder gives me my seat back...before sitting back down on my lap. I hear Qrow and winter start talking...somewhat friendly this time beige I heard Cinder address me.

"Hey Coal..." I turn my head and look at her letting her know I'm listening. "What were you and Qrow talking about.? Because your very spaced out right now."

"Nothing...too important. Just something about his boss and stuff." She leans her head against my chest again. "Hey, how would you feel about going to Vale in two days?"

"What brought this out?"

"I-jus-Do you want to head to Vale? I have to be there, and I wanted you to come with me." I rest my chin against the top of her head.

"Does this have to do with what Qrow said to you?"

"...Yes..." I feel her shuffle, moving her head and meeting my eyes.

"Then yes. I would love to go with you too Vale." I smiled and gave her a hug.

"Thank you. because if this trip goes how I think it's going, I'm going to need all the support I can get..."

* * *

**HEY wAnT it be my guys? I know this is a shorter chapter than what I've been putting out but I've had finals and projects out of the wazzo, and it's been piling on and stuff. But you don't have to worry about that anymore most of it is out of the way. Meaning I can actually start writing chapters again.**

**Hopefully your enjoyed this chapter! And holy shit this story grew! We are at 78 follows like holy hell thats insane! I never imagined that I would manage to even reach 50 with this story. My end goal was to have 100, when I was done with the story!**

**Hmmm but anyways, make sure to review, follow and favorite! And makes sure to give me any criticism, because I want this story to become better! See you next chapter!**


	9. The Magical Wizard Of Oz

**Hello! Welcome back!**

**I... honestly this should have been put out awhile ago. In part to football, my job, and my overall laziness I've would have done as the kids say "stopped giving a fuck". But here we are now, writing this a few days before my birthday, September 7th, and I'm hoping to revitalize this story after a 3-4 month hiatus.**

**OmegaDimensionWalker: I was going to have a scene like that, I'll probably go and add that at some point. At the time I just wanted to get a chapter out, not have a longer drought of chapters. But that excuse is kinda pointless now isn't it?**

**Guest One: Waving a grenade would work...too bad Coal doesn't have grenades...I think? Is it bad I can't remember what I gave my OC?**

**Guest Two: Cinder as the main girl? I guess I have been writing her like that haven't I? I haven't even fully committed to an idea yet.**

**"Poker... It isn't about lying to get out of trouble. It's about lying to sway the favors towards you. And if you can't do that you might as well go all in with your cards face up" Me, teaching my friends how to play poker.**

* * *

BANG...BANG...BANG...BANG

The smell of gun smoke fills my nose. The sweet, yet burning sensation of gunpowder. The brand new target I bought, now looking like expensive Swiss cheese. I look around the forest that I turned into my small gun range, my private hangout if you will. As much as I love talking and hanging out with Adam and Cinder, sometimes I need personal time...time shooting things like a proud American should. Hoo Rah.

I put 6 more bullets into the chamber in Sequoia. There are times where you have some pent up anger, which only pouring every bullet in a target can solve. Are there better ways to release my anger? Probably. Do I care? No. I examine Sequoia after reloading it, enjoying the craftsmanship that required Billy to make it. I transfer my eye to the sky taking in the beautiful day, 80 degrees Fahrenheit no humidity and a slight chill. Absolutely perfect compared to the rain yesterday. I began to put my stuff in a backpack I brought with me and began the 30 minute trek back to the house.

I start walking on the muddy path, ruining the throw away boots I had bought specifically for this purpose. Now, what's something to think more about? Hmm... maybe gamblers eye? Alright so my semblance right, it basically tells me the tell, or something about a person of interest, mostly who ever I'm looking at. And I have found it to be pretty handy, especially when trying to talk to Cinder. Helps me dodge a land mine or two... I'm not really the best talker so knowing what the other person is feeling about a topic is really helpful. Even if it's only small movements that could indicate discomfort, or happiness.

I push more branch's that cover my secret path out of the way as I finally exit the forest. The forest always was my favorite writing place... ahhh the memories. Honestly I never really knew what drew me to the spot I made for the bonfire, just kinda liked the serenity it provided. I began walking up to the houses back door, trying to open it as quietly as I can. It is early in the morning and shooting deep into woods muffles the shots... kinda. No one really cares about gunshots out here not so surprisingly. Probably guards or travelers shooting Grimm who've gotten to close. I push the final branches out of the way stepping into the small clearing one might call a backyard, that belongs to a house of a carpenter.

I walk up to the sliding glass back door opening it up slowly as to not wake up Adam or Cinder. The only one who doesn't know I do this in the morning is Cinder, would rather her not get mad at me for walking into a Grimm infested forest by myself, even though I was the one who saved her in it, Don't tell her that though she doesn't like being the damsel in distress, it why I tease her about it often. I enter the house after it took an agonizing amount of time to open up the door in the first place annddd perfect no one is up yet. Might as well start some coffee for them and wake 'em up a bit, because the bullhead ride will stop off in an hour, meaning me and Cinder have to leave rather quickly. I put some grinds in a filter, and put it in the machine. As I start the coffee maker I feel arms wrap around me and rest on my shoulders.

"**Hey Coal where have you been?**" That must be the scariest, calmest whisper I have ever heard. All right Coal just make coffee and pretend she doesn't sound mad.

"Hey Cinder, want some coffee?" I try to keep my eyes forward on the coffee. You can't stare into the eyes of death, if you don't look at the reaper.

"**Yes but I'm more interested in where you went**?" Oh boy. It's moments like these that remind me that she was a villain. I feel her embrace get tighter, but not in the good way. More like when a cobra captures it ms prey and won't let it go. "**Nothing too dangerous right?**"

"No ma'am, nothing one could consider dangerous at all." I turn around in her 'embrace' quickly as I stare into her eyes. My height advantage making itself present even if it's only 4 inches. "Why are you asking? Need me for something?"

"U-uh" Her face quickly went red as she looked at me. She started to look uncomfortable as she tried to step back "N-no just wanted to see where you go on Saturday mornings..." she said in a quiet voice.

"I just go out for walks to enjoy the dewy mornings that's all." Even though it's not, it's alright a little white lie won't kill anyone.

"Th-then would you mind if I joined you ne-next time?" Ahh there's the stuttering Cinder I know.

"Sure, I don't see why not." Welp guess next Saturday I'm going to take her on a walk. "What time is it? 7:30? What are you still doing up?"

"I uh-woke up early and noticed you were gone,_ it's not like I woke up because you left the bed, nope not at all_" she mumbled that last part.

"What was that I couldn't hear the last bit?" She squirms a little in my embrace now, Ha! The tables have turned!

"Nothing just thinking out loud..." a little chime goes off from the coffee machine.

"Do you uhh want some coffee?" She looks up at me and leans her head into my chest.

"In a little bit." I hug her a little more tightly. "I just need a second."

* * *

**_ding_** "Attention all passengers we will be arriving at Beacon Academy in 20 minutes, I repeat we will arrive at Beacon Academy in 20 minutes." **_ding_**

I let out a sigh of relief. I mean the bullhead ride was only two hours which compared to how it was in rural Maryland this is easy, it took nearly 30 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store. I look down on my shoulder, because Cinder 'woke' up early she got tired and and fell asleep in my shoulder half way in the trip. The only part of her that reminds me of her villain self is when she's concerned about my safety in peticular. But as I look down at her all I can see is this cute nerdy girl who just had to deal with the list of her entire family. I let out an actual sigh now as I look out the window to see the academy. And you know how everyone in FanFiction plays it out to be something to marvel at? Honestly I'm not that impressed. I know I know, it's the great Beacon how can you not be impressed? Honestly probably because I've seen it before, and unlike going to see the eagles play in their stadium, this doesn't have as much awe tied to it. Does that mean I'm not a huge RWBY fan?

"Hey Cinder" I shake her a little bit she, but I get no indication of her being awake. "Cindy come on we're almost there"

"Mmmm" She mumbles a little bit but still looks asleep, as I got to shake her a little harder I see a glow edging her mouth. HA! Thank you semblance, not awake my ass.

"Welp I guess I'll leave you here... maybe the flight attendants will wake you up after I tell them to take you back..." Wow would you look at that. Almost as soon as I said that Cinder started to rise with her eyes open, just 'waking up'. If I hadn't known she was trying to fake the last bit of her sleep it would have looked like she was just waking up.

"Good morning Coal." She says in between yawn which I can now tell is fake, mixed with a little reality. "How far away are we?"

"Look out the window, you tell me?" She shifts her body to allow herself to see out the window. Almost immediately her jaw drops as she takes in the academy.

She whips around to look at me with a glare that looks more like a angry pout. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" She points her finger at the window. "I would have liked to see the academy fully!"

I give her a playful stare, "Well maybe someone should have gotten more sleep before we got on the bullhead." She throws a playful punch at my shoulder, then retakes her position on my shoulder. She sighs before moving her head to look at me. "Dont worry I forgive you, _because you used my nickname you gave me..." _

"You know you have to stop mumbling the last bit of what you're saying sometimes or else I won't be able to understand you." She smiles, before grabbing my brown cap and putting it in her head. I look at what she's wearing, jeans and my lucky hoody. I move in an attempt to grab my hat back.

At the last second she pulls the hat off and away. "Nope not until I get an apology."

"But I thought you forgave me?" She sticks her younger out in a teasing manner.

"That was before you tried to take you hat back." She puts the hat back on her head. I sigh, before shrugging.

"Alright, I'm sorry I waited too long to wake you up." She nods handing the hat back to me. I put it back on my head back where it belongs. Unfortunately it doesn't fit Cinder's outfit, it only fits mine because I'm wearing kakis and a two shade brown and gray flannel I rolled up.

The bullhead lands down with a silent thud with a sigh Cinder gets up with myself following, almost immediately she grabs my hand and drags me out of the bullhead pointing every which way like we're at a tourist attraction.

"Ehem." I manage to drag Cinder to a stop as I turn around to see a younger Glynda Goodwitch. Wasn't she 26-27 in the show? That's what I always thought... does that mean she's 22 right now? Man 1 year out of Beacon and already the assistant to Ozzy boy. "I am the assistant to Headmaster Ozpin. Him an Qrow are expecting you, if you would follow me please." She started to walk a way, making it so we had to follow her.

"Nice too meet you too..." I say under my breathe as I begin walking. I looked back at Cinder only to find that she is hugging into my shoulder. "_Guess I'm leading us there..._" I mumble to myself.

"Hmm, what did you say about mumbling? You wouldn't be able to understand me? Don't do it?" Cinder says from my side teasingly, I look at her face to her sticking her tongue out with a playful glint in her eyes.

"Haha very funny" I follow Glynda around the corner, hey I recognize this hallway it's the one leading up to Ozpin tower. I roll my eyes at Cinder as I follow Glynda unto the elevator. "At least I'm not the one who asked for coffee and didn't drink it."

"_That's because I was admiring you..._" There she goes mumbling, I swear this shits contagious. "I drank a little while you were getting ready, _I was ready since you left the bed and made me wonder where you went.._."

"Fine, fine, I give. I wave my white flag, shoot my rescue flare." I began to wave my right hand in a fake surrender. We enter the elevator as Glynda hits the highest button on the panel. I let out a nervous sigh as I scan the elevator annndd yep. Exactly as its always been. I examine Glynda a little more, helmet hair is done a little different it looks more like... how do I explain it? A French braid? That sounds about right. I notice a glow around Glynda's hand, where she was holding her clipboard. Why would she be nervous? I notice her subtly staring at me... am I making her nervous? I look down at Cinder who's humming to the elevator music quietly with her eyes closed. I don't see how she be the one to make Glynda nervous, I look down on my waist it finally all clicking that I have Sequoia in its holster...

**_Ding_**

The elevator door opens, and Glynda quickly moves into Ozpin's office. Me and Cinder slowly follow, almost like detecting that the room is more serious than normal she detached from my arm, now walking side by side with me. I look down the middle of the room where I remember Ozpin's desk being, and sure enough that's where he is with his arms on the desk, hands intertwined making a fist, giving me a somewhat creepy smile as he looks at me.

"Why hello, why don't both take a seat so we can get started." He said gesturing with one hand towards the seats. Carefully I take a seat scanning the room quickly to see if I could find Qrow, and when I couldn't I started looking for a Crow sitting around somewhere sure enough there one was in a bird cage.

"I thought Qrow would be joining us?"

"I had him run into vale to pick up some coffee, I had my times mixed up." He looked at Glynda accusing her with his eyes. Unfortunately a glow surrounded his eyes... this was planned and there will be no coffee...

"Alright, makes sense enough." I look over a Cinder seeing her look extremely nervous. "Now I know Qrow said you wanted to talk to me I can't remember what is was about."

"Clever, very clever. Using the fact that you were never told to get information from me." He moved his hand over to a stack of papers I've never seen before sliding it towards me. "Glynda would you mind taking the young lady on a tour of our facilities, I would greatly appreciate it."

She nodded motioning Cinder to follow her. Cinder stood up and moved uncertainty towards elevator looking at me for help. "Go ahead Cindy maybe when I'm done they'll let you show me around." A little more certain she enters the elevator, almost as quick as the elevator closed the atmosphere changed.

"Now if you would kindly look through all of the papers I gave you." Holy shit there's at least 4,000 individual sheets of paper! Are these supposed to be people?

"Now before I spend an hour going through these you want to cut to the chase, because I'm pretty sure I know where your going with this." I slide the papers back towards him.

"Then you understand that when I go through every single list of Coals that have existed, every single one might I add and none of them are you in name or physical appearance, you can see how this might be alarming."

"I can definitely answer the question as to why that is, but depending on your mind set you might not like it." I lean back into my chair and cross my arms.

"Oh and what kind of answer is that?" He says, the creepy smile making its way onto his mouth.

"The one that lets me know that Qrow is currently eavesdropping on our conversation." I lean forward a bit to add some emphasis, his smile slowly turning into a frown. "The same one that lets me know he's not just eavesdropping, he is in this room."

"How would that be true he's told you his semblance and it's not invisi-"

"It's also the same one that lets me know that you don't actually have a pet crow for shits and giggles." I cut off, Ozpin's smile now a scowl. "One might say that the crow over there might be Qrow himself."

"Now then, I might just be interested in your answer that, mind you, let you know one of my most hidden resource that only me, Qrow and 1 othe-"

"You mean Raven right? Qrow's sister?" I cut off again. Ozpin's agitation forming into a glare that piercing into my soul. "All right, all right. It just not everyday you know more than you need to about an organization."

"Qrow you can come out now, and you Coal can begin to explain your... situation" Qrow flies out of the cafe turning back into a human standing next to Ozpin.

"Well where do I begin... do you believe in reincarnation?"

* * *

(Cinders P.0.V)

"As you can see here we have our music for students to come play for personal enjoyment. Or to put on a show for fellow classmates." The assistant leads me through a few more areas of the building pointing out the specific guitar and drum rooms. Apparently those are the instruments that cause the most noise. As we walk out I can't help but feel that Coal would love this room.

"Wow! Your hallways are so nice! Way better than the school I went to."

"Which combat school did you go to?" Glynda asked as we turned into a hallway labeled '_SAFF LIVING'_

"Oh I didn't go to a combat school, my parents wouldn't let me. I went to a art college." As we walk down a hallway a women with caramel skin walked towards us.

"Oh, How was that? I wanted to do art if my combat career" The more the woman gets closer the more beautiful I realize she is. For some reason I get a sinking feeling in my gut.

"It was nice, I was entering my sophomore year, but due too... family circumstances I had to leave." As I finish my sentence the woman was in talking distance.

"Hey Glynda!" She waves as she last by.

"Hey Amber!" Glynda waved back. Wait... oh.

"T-that, that was Amber?" My jaw drops as I spin back around. "_I really do have competition with her_"

* * *

(Back To Me)

"So you really expect us to believe you relayed information for Ozpin, died, and was reborn plopped into the middle of the Emerald Forest?" Qrow looked at me with a pause, enough time for me to nod. "Then you met me and here we are?" I nodded again.

"Yeper, 100% exactly what happened" I turned over at Ozpin and tried to relay that I was actually lying and would only really talk if it was the two of us.

"Actually Qrow, now that I think about it... I believe I remember his face." He gave me a nod, he turned his body to Qrow with his mug, which I realize was there the entire time. "Hey Qrow can you go refill this for me, I would ask Glynda but as you can see I already sent her away."

"Fine... you better tell me what happened while I was gone though." Qrow grumbled as he walked into the elevator that seems to always be where ever it's needed.

"Now then, why don't you tell me the truth?" Ozpin said as he pulled a fresh mug from god knows where.

"Well one night my car started to have engine failure so I pulled off into someone's drive way, which in the middle of nowhere is dangerous on its own." I pause to regain my breathe." After I saw that nothing was really long I rushed out of the driveway as I got overcomes with fear. But unfortunately as I pulled out a semi truck was passing the entrance, meaning e crashed right into me. I don't remember too much from after that."

"And how does that correlate with you knowing information even people I trust don't know." He calmly takes a sip from the mug.

"When I came too, I was in a dark room that after the lights came on, the room became a tv game show set. Then I met a deity on my world that is generally know for reincarnation." I took another breathe while examining his face. "He spun a wheel that would decide where I would be reincarnated and this world was chosen. The reality of RWBY."

"Hmm sounds like a team name I would make." I smile

"That's because it is. RWBY is a team made of 4 girls, named Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long. Together they fought the creatures of Grimm at a school called Beacon." I finish staring at him.

"And why should I believe you at all? While the names you gave me were real, what about this show, that you say tells you about some of my secrets?" He says before taking another sip from his coffee... which a glow starts to surround.

"You should believe me because I might be able to help you against Salem. And I've already thrown a wrench in her plans." At that Ozpin actually did a spit take.

"Wait you're telling me that you not only know who Salem is, but actually did something to get her ire? What was it?"

"You know that young lady in here? She was going to become Salem's Queen. And like a bishop I saw an opening, and took the queen out before it even was really put in play."

"You know when Qrow said that you were interesting, I don't think he even knew how truly interesting you were... or how intelligent you can be." Ozpin said as he started to dig out something from a drawer.

"Honestly I'm surprised how smart I can be sometimes." He hands a key out and wanting whatever good faith it meant I took it.

"Here's a key to room 420. It should be adequate enough for you and the young miss to sleep for the night." I gave him a look basically to say, what for? "I'm afraid this conversation will have to go on another day, I need time to think over what has been said."

I nod my head and stand up. I walk to the elevator which conveniently opened up as I got to it showing Qrow with a thermos, I gave him a head nod as I walked in, and pressed a button. The elevator dinged as it lowered itself and only then did I realize that I didn't know how to find my room.

* * *

**Wow would you look at that nearing almost 4,200 words, heh get it. But really I don't have much to say other than here I am, if you liked the chapter Review, Like and favorite otherwise, see you all next time!**


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